From the Sky
by huntressatalanta
Summary: Anora never imagined that she would see the ground in her lifetime. Her generation was supposed to be a transitional generation. Then again, she never thought she would manage to get herself arrested, either. Bellamy/OC
1. Chapter 1: The Laws Are Clear

**Disclaimer: I do not own the 100 or any of its characters. I have not read the books, so this story is based on the show.**

* * *

Agro Station was very different from Alpha Station where she grew up. The air seemed lighter somehow, and though Anora would not put it past the Council to give Alpha better air than the rest of the stations if they could, it had nothing to do with the Council. People on Agro were happier, more carefree and much quicker to laugh. They had welcomed her as if she was one of their own, and not as if she had only visited the station a handful of times when she was barely out of her toddler years.

She remembered very little from those visits, only that her Nana was always very happy to see her. The warmth of Nana's hand, and the story of the frog she told her. And that one time when she was sick, and her mother had brought her to Nana so she could take care of her while her parents were at work. Nana had let her rest in her bed, ran her hand through her hair and hummed a little tune for her as she fell asleep.

When Anora asked Elizabeth why they were being so nice to her, she only smiled.

"We all remember your Grandmother, dear. And those of us who care to try hard enough, we remember your mother, too."

Anora pondered her words for a while, and she could tell Liz was studying her from behind her glasses. Her gaze was open and inviting, though, not scrutinizing. She had never felt like she belonged anywhere, but on that second day of work she let herself hope that Agro could be her home. The first day Liz had shown her around and given her the basics on how to grow soybeans. The second day she brought her along to make soy milk.

She enjoyed her time in the Soy Fields, as they called them. Or perhaps she mostly loved working with Liz. Though Liz was much older than her, perhaps a few years younger than her father, she was one of the kindest women she had ever met. Liz always recognized when Anora was having a bad day, or when she desperately needed to laugh. And sometimes her son, Jasper, would visit during lunch. His visits were always the best part of her days on Agro.

Jasper was Anora's age, with dark hair like hers hanging in his eyes, contrasting his mother's graying, blonde locks. He always had a pair of goggles hanging around his neck, or sitting on top of his head.

"Hiya, girlie! You're new!" he said the first day when Liz introduced her during lunch. "I'm Jasper Jordan, pleased to meet you, m'lady," he said as he gave a little bow, with one arm tucked behind his back. Anora could not help but giggle at his antics, perhaps one of the first signs of true emotion any of the Jordan family saw from her.

"So, I hear you're from Alpha Station. What's that like?" he asked, and them proceeded to gulp down a glass of soy milk, spilling on his shirt. He swore loudly, and tried to dry his shirt with a napkin, while Liz scolded him for his use of language. Jasper quickly apologized, but turned to wink at Anora when his mother wasn't looking.

"Boring," said Anora with a cheeky smile. "I prefer Agro."

She hadn't known Liz long, but she didn't have to look at her to know she was smiling.

* * *

Though she loved working with Liz, after two months in the soy fields she decided to request a transfer to the kitchens. After all, it was what she wanted when she took her job at Agro in the first place. Her mother had worked in the kitchens when she was a Anora's age, and always spoke fondly of her short time there. Liz would understand, she thought. Jasper would probably be disappointed when she wasn't there for lunch anymore, but she would see him around, wouldn't she?

Though she worked on Agro, she stilled lived in her father's apartments on Alpha. Once she turned eighteen, she would be transferred to Agro permanently. However, for another year, she had to walk back to Alpha after work every day. And so she did, every day the same. She would walk back to Alpha, pop by home to pick up her rations and head over to the Millers' apartments to eat with them. It had been a few years since her father started working late every day, so she ate with the closest thing to family she had.

"There you are, Anora, I was wondering where you had gotten to! Come sit down." said Carlotta, as Anora entered the apartment. She took her place at the table, and laid out the cheese sandwiches she had brought next to each plate as Carlotta filled their bowls with soup.

"Sorry, I didn't realize I was late."

"Oh, don't worry about it, honey. You had that long walk after all," Carlotta assured her. "Nathan! Time to eat!"

"Is David on the late shift again?"

"I'm afraid so. We'll just have to do without him tonight," said Carlotta. There was a smile her face, but her eyes were heavy.

Nathan appeared from his room, with a more genuine smile on his face. Anora could always trust that her best friend was glad to see her.

"Evening, 'Nora! Eventful day?"

"I nearly cut off my finger trying to slice a leek."

"Fascinating."

The two teenagers grinned at each other, before bursting into giggles and starting on the soup.

"Thanks for having me, as always, Carlotta."

Carlotta waved her off. "Of course, honey. Now go on you two, or you won't be able to get back before curfew, Nate."

"Yes, mom." Nathan rolled his eyes at her, but Carlotta didn't see. He pulled his friend with him. The door had only closed for a few seconds before Nathan turned to her.

"Did you hear about Jake Griffin?"

Anora frowned. "What about him?"

"He was floated yesterday for treason, and Clarke was arrested."

"Treason?" she gasped. "That doesn't sound like the Griffins."

"No," said Nathan. "It doesn't."

He started walking, pulling her arm lightly, before letting go, to make her move with him. The two otherwise very chatty friends were silent for a while.

"How old is Clarke, exactly?" asked Anora carefully.

"A couple of weeks younger than you, I think. She's still sixteen."

A wave of dread ran through her, down her spine and through her legs, finishing with her toes. Her own seventeenth birthday was only a week away. A year then, before Clarke would be floated. For _treason._

"I can't say I ever liked her much, but..." Nathan stopped talking, like he didn't know what to say.

Anora couldn't help but agree. Clarke had never been her friend, barely an acquaintance. When they were much younger, she had tried to befriend Clarke. They had been two of the very few girls on Alpha Station born in their year, most of the others were boys. Anora had assumed they would become close, but quickly found out how wrong she was.

Clarke had shut her down several times as a little girl. Whenever Anora spoke to her, the blonde girl would just stare right through her with wide eyes, and then leave to find Wells Jaha to gossip. Clarke would whisper in his ear, and Anora remembered perfectly the looks Wells used to give her. He looked amused. This would go on for weeks, until one of Clarke's parents came to pick up both their daughter and Wells from preschool, leaving Anora alone to wait for her mother.

"Poor Dr. Griffin," was all she could say before stopping outside her apartment. Nathan nodded in agreement, before putting his arms around her and pulling her into a close hug.

"Promise me you'll be careful, Nate?" she whispered into his shoulder, tears pressing from behind her eyes. Nathan sighed, and

"I promise. I won't get caught."

"They don't care what the motive is. The laws are clear. It's stealing, even if you mean well."

Nathan chuckled slightly. "I know, 'Nora. Don't worry about me."

They pulled away. For a short while she stared into his eyes and wondered if he was lying. Nathan stared back, but not searching for something like she was. He looked as if he'd already found it.

"Good night, Nathan."

"'Night," he whispered, and watched her enter her apartment.

* * *

Sundays were always boring, at least in Anora's opinion. She mostly spent Sundays hanging out with Nathan, but she couldn't find him earlier. So she spent this Sunday lounging on her bed, reading up on recipes from her mother's old journal, the one she had scribbled on the outside "how to survive Earth". Which was a ridiculous name. Anora hardly believed if she ever got to see earth, she would find ingredients to make pizza. Perhaps if she could save ingredients from their rations, she could make some for her father's birthday.

"Anora?" said a voice from the doorway. She jumped a little, not expecting her father to be home before late. He looked tired. dark bags under his matching dark eyes, which were darting from one end of the room to the other like he had never really seen her room before. Searching for something, or perhaps avoiding something.

"Yes?" she replied, sitting up properly. Her father hesitated in the doorway a little before deciding to sit down on the bed. He moved slowly, and Anora could feel herself getting impatient. If he had sought her out while she was in her room, when he was supposed to be working meant something was up. Something she wasn't going to like.

He sat down on the edge of the bed by her feet, placing his elbows on his knees and running his hands down his face. With a heavy sigh, he folded his hands together and pressed his lips into a thin line,. Anora watched him carefully, her worry growing with every second.

"Dad, whatever it is, please, just tell me."

He looked up from the floor and turned his head towards his daughter, who sat leaning against the wall with a pillow supporting her back, her mother's journal in her lap.

"I have some bad news," was all he said. He said it simply, like everything he said. Straightforward might as well have been her father's middle name. Though she wouldn't know, now that she thought about it. He'd never told her his middle name.

Anora leaned a bit forward, silently urging him to go on. He let out another heavy sigh.

"Dad..."

"It's Nathan. He's been arrested."

His words hang in the air for a while. He looked at her, but she only stared back. For a short second he wondered if she had heard him. Then she snapped out of her daze a little, closing her eyes, fighting tears that threatened.

"Why? When?" she asked, eyes still closed. He turned to stare straight ahead into the wall covered with pictures of different flowers and plants. It looked as if she had brought the ground to space.

"Early this morning. He was found trying to sneak out of the rations storage, with rations worth six people on his body."

The tears that had threatened spilled over, running down her cheeks. Anora sniffled, and her father turned to her at the sound, shifting a little in his seat and rubbing his neck.

"He promised," was all she said, quietly, but not a quite a whisper. Like she was too tired to speak up. "He promised he wouldn't get arrested."

"What?" said her father sharply and grabbed her arm tightly. "Anora, did you know what he was up to?"

She tried to pull her arm away but his grip was too tight.

"Answer me!" he yelled, and grabbed her other arm to keep her from wriggling out of his grip, which only made her fight harder.

"Let go of me! I didn't know!"

He let go of her, got up from the edge of the bed and started pacing.

"Tell me everything," he demanded.

Anora sniffed, and curled up into the corner of her bed, wiping tears from her face as she did so.

"He talked about some Factory Station kid that was sick. The doctors said it was because he couldn't digest wheat, but the rations office kept giving his family bread. He wanted to help them. That's all he told me."

Her father ran a hand down his face, but continued pacing frantically.

"Don't you see?" he whispered. "The consequences if you were to be involved..."

"I didn't know," she said firmly.

He turned around to face her. "But you suspected!" he accused, before turning around to pace the floor again. "You wouldn't have asked him to promise not to get arrested otherwise."

"He had just told me about Clarke Griffin," she said.

Her father froze, before whispering, "what do you know about that?"

"I know she was arrested for treason. I know you'll float her in a year. I made Nathan promise to be careful so he wouldn't end up like her. And now he has, and you'll float him too," she replied coldly.

His demeanor changed with these words. Gone was the frantic father, and the exhausted, overworked councilor returned. He returned to her bed, but now sitting down at the opposite corner of the one she was curled up in.

"I'm sorry, Anora. The laws are clear."

"The law sucks," she said while grabbing her pillow and laying down to sleep, not noticing her father nodding in agreement.

* * *

Another few weeks passed after that, and Anora's birthday went by. Carlotta and David got her a new forest green, knitted sweater. Her father and grandmother got her new boots. Having new things were a luxury on the Ark, most clothes were patched and worn. She was very grateful, though what she wanted most was to spend her birthday with her best friend. She spent her birthday afternoon with her Grandmother instead, tending the Tree with her, like she did when she was a child.

"I know it's hard being festive when your friend is locked up, sweetheart. But you can't let life pass you by without taking your part in it," Vera had told her, and hugged her close before letting her go home to her father's apartments.

Anora rarely saw Marcus, only a few mornings when they left for work at the same time. Those days they walked for a minute in silence before parting ways. He would say, "have a good day," as he took off, heading for Go-Sci, not waiting for a reply. Those were the only words they shared for a long time.

After work, she would head over to the Millers' like always, but it was never the same without Nathan. The laughter that had been so commonplace around their table was gone now. Though she couldn't blame them, she missed Nathan, too. She would have gone to visit him, but he was only allowed two visitors on visitation day, and she couldn't bare to take that time from his parents. However, she wrote him a letter to be delivered by his father. It was mostly filled with rantings about how stupid he was for what he did. She did tell him she forgave him, how much she missed him, and that she would do her best to convince her father that he could be safely let out on his eighteenth birthday. That they didn't need to float him.

The morning of Nathan's seventeenth birthday, a month after his arrest, Anora reported for duty as always. The Executive Chef was in a meeting with the Agro leader, man with cold gray eyes, a bald head and a big red beard. They were yelling at each other in the middle of the kitchen, and the Executive Chef was as red in the face as the Agro leader's beard. Carlos, the vegetable chef, who she worked under, waved her over.

"Just ignore them. This happens once every three months or so. Barnes needs more food for the Sky Box than we have rations, I guess they have too many prisoners. Last time it was the Privileged. It's always something, but they'll be done in a few. Get chopping on those peppers, will you?"

I barely have the time to get my station ready when the Executive Chef starts screaming.

"It's impossible, Barnes! Anora, get the rations list from my office, now!"

Anora was baffled. She glanced at Carlos, who nodded furiously, and waved her into action. She headed to the office whilst pondering how the Chef knew her name, because Anora certainly couldn't remember the Chef's.

"Perhaps you'll listen to me when you have proof!"

"The day I listen to you, Evgenia, is the day I'm walking on the ground!"

Really? The Chef's name was Evgenia?

The office was a mess. Anora sighed, wondering how she was supposed to find anything. The desk in the middle of the office was made of metal, like most everything on the Ark. It was covered in papers, binders and dirty dishes that Anora guessed was a result of many late nights. The paper shredder in the corner was overflowing, and the century old computer was buried under a sea of clutter, and an old jacket.

How did she get so much paper, Anora wondered. Like everything else on the Ark, paper was rationed. She dug through the mess and found the tablet under a binder, hoping it had the rations list. The tablet switched on, which was progress, but the documents folder was more of a mess than the desk. She opened the Memos application Go-Sci used to communicate with the different Stations. The memos were basically emails, but no one dared to tell Go-Sci that. Looking for the rations list, something else caught her attention.

 _Rations Restriction in Factory Station_

Anora skimmed the memo, but got the gist of it. The council were giving the people of Factory Station smaller rations to save food. Anora could only guess that it was a punishment for the two protests that turned into riots around the time Nathan was arrested. It was a cut of almost 50% of what they already had.

"Did you fall asleep in there?" called the Chef, but Anora ignored her.

Her father was keeping food from innocent people. Innocent people who were already starving. This would surely kill the kids Nathan tried to help, and then were gonna float him too. Feeling her blood boil under her skin, she took the tablet and walked out of the office. She quickly walked past the Chef and Agro leader who were still fighting, past Carlos who was calling her name, and out the doors heading for Go-Sci.

Upon arrival, she almost crashed into Dr. Griffin. She was wearing her doctor's coat and looked to be headed for Medical. Abby started laughing a little at the almost-accident, but Anora wouldn't have it.

"Where's my father?" she demanded, and Abby tensed up, taking note of her tone.

"He was here a minute ago. Anora, is something wrong?"

She didn't reply, only scanned the room for her father. She didn't find him, however, she found the next best thing. Chancellor Jaha was sitting at a table, speaking with the a man she knew was from Engineering. Not able to stop herself, she decided to take her problem up with him instead.

"What the hell is this?" she yelled at the Chancellor once she reached their table. She slammed the tabled on the table. Jaha jumped in his seat, looked up, eyes wide. Seeing the fuming Anora, he frowned. He turned the tablet so he could read the memo. The engineer, however, looked terrified, but whispered something about formalities to Jaha, but Jaha only waved him away.

"How did you find this, Anora?" he asked calmly.

"By accident," she sneered. "How could you do this?"

She could feel Abby move up to her side and put a hand on her arm, but she recoiled from her touch.

"You'll kill them," she said. "Factory Station already has smaller rations than the rest of the stations, and nothing compared to the rations Alpha gets. People already die of starvation down there! You do this and there won't be anyone left on Factory! And then who will make the fancy clothes you wear? Because I sure as hell doubt you'll be the one to do it!"

"Anora, that's enough."

She recognized her father's voice instantly, but she was too far gone to even consider doing what he told her. Her whole body was trembling in anger, and she needed to let it out.

"How any of you managed to get elected is beyond me. You're a bunch of murderers!"

The room fell silent, and nobody moved. Beside her, she could feel her father's hand hovering near her elbow, waiting to grab a hold of her. Jaha stood up and spoke plainly.

"Anora, you can't say anything about this to anyone. This is confidential information. If it gets out, it will cause an uproar."

"Good," she spat. "Maybe they will get rid of you!"

Marcus reacted immediately. He turned her towards him, placed his hands on each side of her head.

"You have to swear to keep quiet, Anora, please" he pleaded. She noticed his eyes grew damp, but still did not reply.

"Swear it!" he said again, more forcefully. Anora glanced around, and counted four guards who had closed in on the situation. Understanding what was happening, she stepped out of her father's grasp.

"No," she said calmly. She turned to Jaha, and looked him in the eye.

"You might have no conscience, but I do. I won't just stand by to let you kill innocent people, pretend I know nothing about it and then watch you float the people who try to help them."

Jaha turned to the guards, and gave a nod. In less than a second someone pulled her hands forcefully behind her back and tied them together tight with a cable tie.

"Hey, careful!" she heard her father say to the guard. He sunk down into a chair by the table, and Jaha walked over to put a hand on his shoulder, but Marcus shook it off much like Anora had with Abby.

"I'll take her," said a familiar voice, and Anora turned to see David Miller looking at her with a guilty expression. He placed a hand on her shoulder to guide her away, but she turned back towards her father.

"Are you gonna let them do it?" she asked. He buried his head in his hands, elbows on his knees, just like the day he told her about Nathan's arrest.

"The laws are clear, Anora," said Jaha. "You are being taken to the Sky Box for treason, and will be reviewed upon your eighteenth birthday."

"Not that!" she snapped at Jaha. She turned back to her father.

"They'll starve, dad," she whispered. "Don't let them do it, please."

"The decision's been made. The vote unanimous."

She didn't want to believe Jaha, but the look on her father's face as he looked up at her again proved he was telling the truth. Anora nodded, sniffing a little and trying to rub the last of her tears on her shoulders. She turned back to David.

"I guess you get to take me to the Sky Box, then. I've never been there before. Could we take the scenic route?"

"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you," he chuckled as he led her through Go-Sci, towards the Sky Box.

"Oh, well, do you think I'll get to wish Nate a happy birthday now?"

"I'm sorry, Anora, treason means solitary confinement."

Anora sighed. "I guess this was a bad idea, then."

* * *

 _Thanks for reading! I hope you were intrigued by the first chapter. Next chapter will be up soon :)_


	2. Chapter 2: Solitary

Disclaimer: I do not own the 100 or any of its characters. I have not read the books, so this story is based on the show.

* * *

Anora quickly found that solitary confinement was not fun. She was not allowed any visitors, the only familiar face she saw was David Miller. A few times he managed to pull some strings and be the one to deliver meals to the prisoner in solitary confinement. As far as she knew, Clarke was the only other prisoner in solitary.

He couldn't stay long, but a few kind words were enough to go a long way. Twice he sneaked letters in from Nathan, letters she cherished dearly and read every other day just so she would have something to do. She would try to write back, but she didn't have a pencil or paper. David promised he would try to bring her some, but that had been months before, and since then she hadn't seen him.

There were only four other guards that brought meals. The first one was an old man probably facing retirement. He was kind, dark skinned, and wrinkled, but refused to talk to her.

"I'm sorry, Anora. I can't talk, you know that," he would always say. Anora would smile, and tell him it was okay. He cared enough to learn her name, and that meant a lot to her.

The second one was a nightmare to deal with. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was probably in his thirties. Like with the first guard, she tried to speak to him when he came with food.

"Shut up, prisoner," he said. The next time she spoke he threatened with violence.

The next guard was a woman with mousy-brown hair. Anora deduced that she was probably also in her thirties. She said nothing when Anora spoke, she did not even look at her. Whenever she came by, Anora would talk to her, but get no response. She would talk about how the last meal tasted, about anything she could see from her ceiling window, the weather on Earth, the stars, the moon. Sometimes only random thoughts that struck her. Once she told the guard a joke, and she could have sworn she saw her lips twitch. But only the one time, and she stopped coming by after that.

After six months in solitary, she finally got a new guard that dared to speak to her. He didn't know what happened to the female guard, but he was happy to talk to her about anything else. Himself, mostly, as she didn't have much to contribute. He was only 25, and had just been promoted from cadet to guard a year ago. It might have been because she hadn't seen an attractive male in four months, but Anora couldn't help but think he was handsome. Dark hair cut short, striking blue eyes and broad shoulders. What were eight years difference when they were fifty, she asked herself when he left that first day, but then scolded herself for being silly. She wouldn't reach fifty. She wouldn't reach nineteen.

"I remember you, " was one of the first things he told her the next day. "You tended the Tree."

Anora smiled and asked. "You wouldn't know how my grandmother is doing, would you? Do you ever see her on your rounds?"

"Not on my rounds, but I sometimes go to her sermons with my mother," he said. "She seems healthy as ever, a bit sad when you were locked up. It was all over the ark, of course, seeing as you're famous and all."

"Famous?" Anora snorted with laughter. It had been a while since she laughed.

"You don't get to be Kane's kid without a few people knowing your name," said Thomas with a smirk on his face.

"And is he okay? My dad?" she dared to ask, but regretted it when she saw Thomas' expression. He was hesitant for a short while, looking glancing at the door.

"Sure, he's fine."

Anora knew he was probably lying, but she wasn't about to call him out on it. Not when he was the only one who would talk to her. When he left, he didn't come back until a few days later, and she was almost worried she had scared him off.

* * *

She saw him almost once a day after that, on some days twice. As time went by, those days became the good days. The days she didn't see him turned into bad days. On bad days, she she sometimes didn't even try to speak to guard number one if she hadn't seen Thomas. David visited a handful other times before disappearing, and once she caught herself being disappointed that it was David that came through the door, not Thomas, with her evening meal. She cried when he left, for the first time since she was arrested.

Nine months into solitary confinement, and two months before her birthday, the situation between Anora and Thomas changed. He had already lingered too long in her cell when he told her.

"I remember you, you know."

"Yes, you told me. I tended the Tree," she said. She sat on her bed, leaning against the wall of her cell, one leg propped up and the other dangling over the edge. He was upright next to the bed, leaning against another wall. She was smiling, and he was frowning.

"Yes, but I'm not talking about that time. I'm talking about the dance."

"Oh?" said Anora, sitting up and moving to the edge of the bed. "What dance?"

"The one on Factory Station that was cut short due to solar flares."

"The one where they discovered that girl. I remember," she said. "You ID-ed me?"

He smiled and nodded, sat down next to her and took her hand in both of his. Anora could feel her heart beat slightly faster, but tried to keep her cool.

"I saw you, you had that purple mask that made you look like a cat. And you were dancing with your friends. I remember your hair," he said. Still holding her hand with his left, he lifted his right hand to touch her dark hair gently. He wrapped a finger around one of her locks, and ran his hand through her hair down to the middle of her back, and back up to her shoulders. He then pulled his hand away, like it had burned him.

"You wore it halfway up and pulled back. When the dance ended, I almost had to race another guard to reach you first so I could ID you. He's a bit of a creep, so I figured you would be better off with me."

Thomas chuckled at the memory, still keeping his eyes on her hair. Anora's heartbeat had sped up again, and this time she couldn't keep it under control. She almost sure it beat so loudly that he could hear it.

Anora felt her cheeks heat up, and looked away so he wouldn't see. His hand let go of her hair, and took a hold of her hand once more, waiting for her to turn around again.

"When your ID told me you were Anora Kane I almost peed my pants a little," he joked, watching as her smile appeared. "Your father scares me. I'm man enough to admit it."

"I committed treason, Thomas. Perhaps you should be afraid of me, and not my father?"

"I don't care what you did. I've learned enough about you to know you're a good person who wouldn't dream of harming anyone."

"That's the goal," she whispered. "Nobody dies."

Thomas stared at her for several seconds, searching her face for something, but she didn't know what.

"You should go," she said gently, and pulled her hands from his. "They might come for you any minute now, wondering if I've killed you or something. And then I probably won't ever see you again."

"That would be bad," he said with a small smile.

"It would certainly put a damper on the evening," she said. He nodded and got on his feet.

"I can't wait till you get out of here. We'll wreck havoc on all the stations, just you wait."

Anora laughed. "I'm not getting out of here, you know that."

"Yes, you are," he insisted. "Kane won't let you get floated."

"You're wrong," she whispered. "He'll follow the law like he always does." Thomas winced slightly at her words, and and the light that usually glinted bright in his eyes darkened.

"You should go now, Thomas," was all she said, before she sat back on her bed, leaning against the wall of her cell once again. She closed her eyes, and a few seconds later, she heard the door to her cell open and close, leaving her alone again.

* * *

Their conversation changed everything. When Thomas came with her meals, he would set it down on the floor, and join her on the bed. Every time he would try to take her hand in his, but she would always pull away. He never questioned why, just let her do what he wanted. Perhaps he knew what she knew, that there was no future with her, and didn't want to make the present harder for her than it already was.

He loved her hair, and always wanted to touch it, though she rarely let him. She tried to distance herself from him just a little with each time he visited, but most days found herself gravitating towards him. Once he managed to convince her to let him comb her hair with his fingers. Her dark, almost black, hair which fell to the middle of her back in waves. He had been so gentle and soothing, hands running through her long locks, her head resting in his lap as he did. She fell asleep that day, with her head in his lap, and he made sure not to wake her as he left.

He did most of the talking, but rarely seemed to mind. His focus was to make her laugh, and to make her forget about the four walls and the locked door that kept her away from the people she cared about on the Ark. He told her how he grew up on Power Station, and had been recruited into the guard because he was absolutely awful at physics, not because he had been a promising guard. His mother had been one of the Ark's top electricians, until she passed away after a malfunction in the electrical system on one of the smaller sectors on Factory. She had been there to fix it, but couldn't make it in time. His mother froze to death that day along with 12 others, a few weeks after his 11th birthday. She loved to run her fingers through his hair when he was little. Anora understood, and she let him play with her hair more often after that.

She told him of her own mother the day after. She hadn't ever told anyone how her mother died, because it still made anger flare up inside her. The only people around her who knew, were the people who were there when it happened. Her father, the Millers. She assumed Jaha knew as well, and the Griffins, too. But she told Thomas, because she didn't want to end her life never telling anyone what truly happened. Or rather, what she felt truly happened.

They were watching the surgery through glass. She wanted to inside the OR to hold her mother's hand, but a lady with a mask on her face told her she couldn't. Her father had pulled her away from the door, and walked her over to the chairs near the window. He told her to sit quietly, and scolded her when she got out of her seat to stand beside him by the window. She noticed that he was so close to the glass, his breath fogged up the window. He did not say anything for hours, just watched the surgery and prayed. At least, she thought he prayed. His left arm was draped around his stomach, and he rested his right elbow on it, his hand clenched in a fist near his face.

For hours, he didn't move either. Not even when grandmother Vera came to check on them. He ignored her completely, and Vera took a seat next to Anora. She held her hand, but they did not say anything after Vera assured her that her mother would be okay. They just waited.

He didn't move until the commotion inside the OR. From the other side of the window the doctors were rushing, from one side of the room to the next to get supplies. Marcus' hands dropped to his sides. Anora got out of her seat for the first time, letting go of Vera's hand to hold her father's. He was shaking, so she squeezed his hand gently like her mother always did when she was afraid. On the other side of the window, one of the doctors had a syringe in his hand, but the other doctor took it out of his hand, and placed it back on the shelf where he had found it.

"No," his father said, his voice breaking. "They can't..."

A few seconds later the beeping sound started, and Anora let go of her father's hand to cover her ears. She knew what it meant. It meant it was time for her to scream.

Thomas didn't understand what had happened, but in truth, neither did Anora. She was never sure why her mother got sick, just that she did. At first they had just told her she had stomach pains, then it was an infection, and finally, it was death. And it was all of it at once. He was confused, she could tell, but she didn't have the strength to explain, nor did she wish to think about it anymore. She just wanted him to be there for her, and as always he was. He held her in his arms, refusing to let her feel bad about it like she always did.

As more days went by, though, Anora could feel herself getting nervous anticipating her review. And the more tense she got, the longer Thomas wanted to stay during his visits. This only made her more worried that their friendship, relationship or whatever they were, would be discovered. Whenever he visited, she would tremble in fear of getting caught. Their short time together were mostly spent with her trying to get him to leave sooner than he wanted to. He desperately tried to distract her, but most of the time she only faked an interest in his conversations. In her mind, she was going over the questions she had about her review.

Would they let her back on the Ark if she apologized? Would she apologize? Could she live with herself if she swore to keep quiet?

Perhaps they wouldn't even consider it, but float her straight away. The Council did not take treason lightly. Jake Griffin had been a friend to most of the Council, including her father. He was Jaha's best friend, and they would likely have shared a grandchild in the future if Jake and Clarke hadn't been arrested. He was essential to Engineering, and he was Dr. Griffin's husband. Yet Jaha still floated him.

Who was Anora Kane compared to Jake Griffin? Of course they would float her.

* * *

She saw her father for the first time in almost a year exactly nine days before her birthday.

Her grouchy guard had delivered her first meal as per usual, but her second meal of the day was late. An hour went by, and there was no sign of the guard. That's when she heard the commotion outside her cell. She put an ear to the cell door. People were walking, yelling and making noise only a crowd could make. Was there a riot in the Sky Box?

She heard someone unlock her door, and she pulled back all the way to the wall. Her heart started beating faster, and pressed her back completely against the wall. The door opened, and she let out a sigh of relief when she saw Thomas step through.

"Aren't you a little late," she asked, smiling playfully, feeling her heart still beating too fast. Thomas, however, didn't respond as he usually would have, making her frown. "What's wrong?"

Another guard entered, one she hadn't met before. He was carrying a box under his arm, and wore a frown on his face.

"Prisoner 327, face the wall," said the guard. She glanced at Thomas, who stood in the corner with a stone cold expression, before turning around.

"That won't be necessary, guardsman."

"Dad?" she said, turning around as quickly as possible. Marcus Kane entered her cell for the first time. He looked exactly like he did a year ago, down to the heavy bags under his eyes. She took two steps towards him. To do what? Hug him? She didn't know.

"You need to get some sleep. A year in solitary would probably do the trick."

Like always he gave no response to her attempt at a joke. He wouldn't be her father if he had a sense of humor, after all.

"Put these on," he said. Only then did she notice the bundle of clothes he held. She took them from him, pulling the green sweater she got from the Millers over her head, along with a black jacket.

"What's going on?" she asked as he handed her the boots he gave to her for her seventeenth birthday. She stepped out of her sneakers and laced up the boots.

"You are being sent to the ground."

"What?"

Marcus stepped forward and put his hands on her upper arms, leaning down slightly so he could look her in the eye. His closeness reminded her of the day of her arrest.

"Listen to me very carefully, Anora. You will need to find water and food as soon as possible. Focus on water first. Keep close to Nathan, and Clarke if you can. These kids are criminals, try to avoid them and keep out of trouble. And don't advertise your last name, I doubt these kids look too friendly upon me."

"How many?"

"One hundred of you."

She broke eye contact with him to search for Thomas. He was to her left, his once cold expression was now filled with worry.

"Anora, look at me!" her father ordered, and she turned back to him. "What did I just tell you?"

"That you're sending a hundred teenagers to their death."

His hands fell from her arms and he took a step back, letting her words sink in. He pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head slightly.

"This is the only way," he said. His voice had an edge of desperation to it. "We need to know if the Earth is survivable. This way you have a chance."

"And I'm expendable," she said, feeling wet tears slide down her cheeks.

"No," said her father, stepping close to her again, his hands falling back into place on each side of her.

"Tell me what I just told you. Tell me how you're going to survive."

Anora wiped her face with her hands and sniffed a little. She looked back into her father's eyes, like she used to when she was a little girl, revising for a test at school.

"Get water, then food. Avoid the thugs. Get a new identity. Use Clarke and Nathan as human shields if I have to," she listed. She could have sworn she saw his mouth twitch for a second, but convinced herself that she made a mistake. Her mother was the funny one, not Marcus.

"That's my girl," he whispered, like he used to do when she was younger. For a second he looked like he was going to hug her, but thought the better of it and called for the grumpy guard to bring the box in stead. Her father released her, and the guard stepped in front of her to replace him. He opened it and pulled out a metal bracelet.

"Right arm, please."

She held out her arm, and he closed it around her. A sharp pain shot through her wrist, and she hissed in surprise. The pain disappeared momentarily. The guard didn't look apologetic at all.

"Mayfields, take care of prisoner 319. Owens can bring my daughter to the dropship."

Anora didn't realize her father was speaking to Thomas until he moved, very slowly towards the cell door. She caught his blue eyes for a few seconds, before he disappeared, and Anora couldn't help but think that it would be the last time she ever saw him, and they couldn't even say goodbye.

"May we meet again," was all her father said. He waited a few seconds for a response, but the only thing Anora could think of were the words _but we won't_ , which she didn't want to speak. Marcus nodded to the grumpy guard, who grabbed her by her elbow and led her out of her cell. The cell that had been her home for almost a year.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading! And thank you all for the follows, the favorites and the very sweet reviews. I'm so happy someone actually thought this story seemed interesting. Hopefully you liked this chapter as well. Next one will be on the ground!_


	3. Chapter 3: From the Sky

Disclaimer: I do not own the 100 or any of its characters. I have not read the books, so this story is based on the show.

* * *

The grumpy guard brought her to one of the Ark's dropships. He led her inside, where a couple of dozen kids were seated and buckled in. There were still many seats available, and and behind her, more guards piled in with more kids. Most of them looked younger than her, and she noticed one girl from Alpha who had been in the year below her. She was knocked out, like most of the other kids who were already strapped in.

The guard led her to the ladder in the middle of the room.

"Climb, don't stop until you get to the third level."

She got a hold of the ladder and started climbing. The second level was almost empty, but she kept going until she reached the top. By the time she got up there, she was exhausted. One year of very little physical activity, only a few sit ups every once in a while, did not prepare her for the ground.

A guard was waiting for her, and there were only a few seats available. He grabbed her elbow like the grumpy guard from her cell did, and moved her to a bench with four seats, only one of them was filled. The guard guided her into a seat next to a boy with almost short, messy, blonde hair. He was pale, and like her, out of breath.

"Buckle up," said the guard, and Anora did as she was told. The guard checked the straps, before walking over to the hatch to help another of the kids into the seat next to her. This one was a girl, with long and dark auburn hair. Like the boy, she was also fair skinned. Once she was strapped in, another boy, with dark hair and dark skin, was strapped into the seat next to the girl. The guard then climbed down the ladder and closed the hatch. The level was full of teenagers, yet the only sound was the ever constant humming of the Ark, and the humming of the ship.

"So," said the boy on Anora's right. "Anyone know what the hell is going on?"

"Mass floating?" said a voice behind her.

"Wish they knocked me out like they did the others if we're about to be floated," said another.

"Would have liked to have seen them get all of us up here if we were knocked out," said the boy beside her. He looked at Anora and shot her a playful smile.

"I'm Drew," he said, holding out a hand for her to take. Anora shook it, but hesitated to tell him her name. Her dad told her not to speak her last name, but she didn't know of anyone else named Anora on the Ark.

"Not gonna tell me your name?" he asked, his smile faltering slightly.

But then it was gonna get out anyway. Her father had told her Clarke and Nathan would be here. They both knew who she was. She was bound to run into someone who would out her eventually.

"I'm Anora," she said, giving him a smile. She turned to the girl next to her. "What's yours?"

The girl, still breathing heavily, even more so than Anora had when she first got through the hatch, looked at her with wide eyes.

"Roma," she said. Anora leaned forward to look at the boy next to Roma.

"Connor."

"Nice to meet-" she was interrupted by the dropship lurching into space, away from the Ark. Many of the delinquents started screaming.

"We're gonna die!" Roma screamed and started sobbing, and she wasn't the only one. By now several of the others were crying.

"They're really floating us?" said Drew, voice filled with worry and disbelief.

Trying to stay strong, Anora shook her head and grabbed one of Roma's hands in an attempt to calm her down.

"We're not being floated!" she yelled so everyone would hear her. "They're sending us to the ground!"

Her words started a commotion, and on each side of her, Roma and Drew looked at her in almost wonder. Their eyes filled with hope.

"I'm not sure it's much better, though," she whispered, so only they could hear her, letting her fear betray her. Roma squeezed her hand in reassurance, and on the other side Drew caught the other one.

The dropship lurched again and started shaking. Anora lost her grip on Drew, but on her left Roma had her hand in an iron grip, and she let out another screech.

"What was that?"

"I think it was the atmosphere," said Drew calmly. "Don't worry, Roma. They wouldn't send us down there without a reason. They need us, which means we'll get down safely."

"Perhaps," said Anora. "Then all we have to worry about is radiation."

Two video screens turned on, and an image of the Chancellor appeared.

" _Prisoners of The Ark, hear me now-_

"Ah, and there's my favorite person," muttered Drew.

" _-_ _as your_ _Chancellor_ _, it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you, but a chance for all of us, indeed for mankind itself. We have no idea what is waiting for you down there. If the odds of survival were better, we would've sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable-"_

"Can you believe my mom voted for this guy?" shouted Connor, and some of the kids started booing the Chancellor. A few hushed them, trying to hear what Jaha said.

" _-crimes will be forgiven, your records wiped clean._ "

"That's the least you could do!" someone shouted, receiving various responses in agreement.

"Quiet!"

" _-_ _last war,_ _Mount Weather was a military_ _base built within a mountain. It was to be stocked with enough non-perishables to sustain three hundred people for up to two years. Mount Weather is life. You must locate those supplies immediately._ "

"Sure, like we're gonna do what Jaha tells us!" shouted a guy in the corner. He was one of the older kids, with slicked back hair and an angry look. "The guy's a dick!"

"Don't be an idiot!" shouted Anora in return. "If we want to survive, finding supplies is our best bet. I for one refuse to die just because you think Jaha's a dick!"

The guy glared at her, but he didn't say anything. The glare faded after a few seconds, but Anora wasn't inclined to think that meant he agreed with her.

"You tell him," whispered Drew beside her. He leaned in close, and a smirk danced on his lips. She couldn't help but grin back.

" _Your one responsibility is to stay alive._ "

"He is a dick, though," said Drew, a scowl appearing on his face. Anora turned back to the guy in the corner. Their eyes met, and he rolled his and shrugged.

The dropship lurched violently once more, and more people screamed, Anora being one of them. From down below on the lower levels she could hear someone yelling. Roma let go of Anora's hand, and brought them up to protect her head. Drew nodded at Anora to do the same, and assumed the same position as Roma.

Anora threw a worried look to the guy in the corner. For the first time she noticed he looked frightened, and did not wear the arrogant look on his face like before. He was strapped to the wall along with a few others, and not in a seat like she was. She couldn't help but think it didn't look nearly as safe as being strapped to a seat, but could do nothing but hope for the best as she brought up her own hands to her head. A few seconds later they crashed to the ground. The impact caused Roma's elbow to fly into Anora's hand, which had covered her ear, making her wince in pain.

Then there was silence.

She lifted her head to see the damage, but found that most people looked fine. The guy in the corner was already fumbling with the straps to get loose. Roma was shaking, and Drew was grinning, but she could see no injuries on them.

"Is everyone okay? Anyone injured?" she called out. She heard various replies in affirmation, and the sound of seat belts clicking open sounded through the level. They were okay, she thought, they had made it to the ground.

"Now we worry about radiation," said Drew, sarcasm lacing his words. He looked confident, not worried. Already he was out of his seat, offering Roma a hand with her straps, who was shaking too hard to get the buckle open.

Anora reached for her own buckle, finding no problems to get it open. She stood from her seat, seeing the guy in the corner opening the hatch, and swinging a leg onto the ladder and climbing down. All the kids on their level pooled around the ladder, waiting for their turn to get down, but it took forever.

"What's taking so long?" asked Connor one of the guys near the ladder.

"There's too many people down there. I don't think they've opened the doors yet."

Drew grinned. "I guess you're not the only one worried about radiation."

Anora gave him a little shove, but smiled, and wondered how she had gotten so comfortable with someone she just met.

"I've never been good at waiting. But waiting to see if I live or die takes the cake," said Roma, trying to get closer to Anora and Drew. Anora gave her a reassuring smile, and Drew pulled her into a side hug to comfort.

"They've opened the doors!"

* * *

The light on the first level nearly blinded her. Looking towards the entrance was painful, but not as painful as the sharp pain she felt as one of the kids kicked her in the head trying to climb down the ladder.

"Sorry," he offered. Anora shook her head, making it worse, and blinked a few times.

"Not your fault," she muttered. "Should have moved."

Roma and Drew had climbed down before her, and were not in the dropship. They probably ran outside as fast as they could, she figured. She couldn't blame them. Even inside the ship, she could still smell the sweet scent of the air from the outside that filled it once the doors opened. It reminded her of how her grandmother smelled, and from the time she tended the Tree when she was little.

She waited a few seconds to let her eyes adjust to the bright light, before walking to the entrance. They were lucky to have landed on a sunny day, so they could really appreciate the beauty of the ground. Because it was beautiful. The colors were rarely seen on the ark, the bright green of the grass, the darker green of the trees, even the browns of the dirt. And the blue sky, bright and beautiful and so different from the black, starry space she was used to seeing outside the windows on the Ark.

And the kids were loving it. Some of the girls were dancing around in the tall grass, hugging each other and laughing. A few boys had started climbing the trees. No matter where she looked, she saw a happy and carefree face. Teenagers who had been locked up, most of them would have been floated and never lived past their eighteenth birthday, celebrating a wonderful new found freedom. Anora could not help but smile as she took her first steps on the ground.

It didn't feel much different from the floor on the Ark, and she felt foolish for thinking that it would. Her feet were planted firmly, even if she was standing on grass and dirt instead of metal. She took a long breath, and released it slowly. The air felt wonderful. She could get used to the air on the ground.

 _Find water. Find food. Find Nate._

To hell with what her father said, Nathan was her first priority. Took a few steps away from the dropship, looking around, trying to find a familiar face. The guy from the corner was hanging near the trees with a group of other kids. They were laughing, having a good time, but they had found sticks she assumed they wanted to use as weapons. The type of boys her father had warned her about, thecrowd she was meant to avoid.

Roma and Drew were nowhere to be seen, neither were Clarke or Nathan, but she did find a familiar face.

"Hey," said a voice, approaching her from her left.

"You aren't supposed to be here, Wells."

Wells snorted. "Yeah, well, Clarke is here so I have to be here, too."

"Treason?"

"No."

"Too bad. We could have been 'the Traitorous Three'."

Wells laughed, and Anora couldn't remember if she'd ever made him laugh before. Polite small talk when they were teamed up for a project in class rarely evoked laughter. Of course, they had never been friends, but she knew him better than most of the others down here. He was Clarke's friend, and the two kept to themselves, never bothering with others.

"So what did you do?"

Wells looked down at his feet. Anora narrowed her eyes at him. All he would have to do was steal something.

"I damaged the Tree."

She felt her blood go cold, and not even the sun on her neck could warm her.

"What the hell, Wells!" she shouted. She noticed that she was drawing attention to them, but she really didn't care. That wasn't just any tree, it was the last one on the Ark. It was the tree she tended as a child, the tree her father had tended to. It was her grandmother's life, and it was her grandmother's hope to one day make the journey to the ground, so that their people could make it to the ground.

"What do you mean, damaged? Is it okay? What did you do?"

"I set fire to it."

She wanted to punch him. Make him hurt, because she felt a pain in her chest and she wanted to make him feel it, too. However she couldn't, because she slumped down to the grass floor. She sat there, not crying, not doing anything, just trying to breathe evenly. Wells sat down too, leaning over to catch her gaze.

"I'm sorry, but I had to. The Tree is fine, I think. I was arrested before I could do serious harm. They put out the fire."

She refused to look at him, and when he put his hand on her arm, she recoiled from his touch. Like her father did with his father.

"Anora, I'm sorry."

"Hey, is this kid bothering you?" said a new voice approaching, and she could see two pairs of feet in her peripheral vision.

"You had to, huh?" she asked Wells, as she tried to get on her feet. She stumbled a little, but the girl who had approached them grabbed a hold of her arm and steadied her. Anora would have thanked her, but she was too busy glaring a hole in Wells' skull, who had also gotten to his feet.

"You made a selfish choice to disregard the feelings of others. If you wanted on the dropship, I'm sure all you had to do was ask your father nicely. Or, I don't know, you could have tried treason. I know from experience that it works!"

Wells turned around to move into the dropship, but after a second, he turned back around with narrowed eyes and anger written on his face.

"I thought you of all people would understand!" he said, raising his voice. "After all, you got yourself arrested for Nathan!"

"Of course, you're right, Wells. You've seen right through me," she spat. "Yes, I discovered that the Council voted to halve the rations on Factory Station, then threatened to go public about it and _let myself get locked up in solitary_ because I missed my friend. You've got me all figured out."

"Wait," said the voice from before "The Council voted for what?"

She felt a hand grip her arm, turning her around to face the boy, only to discover that he wasn't a boy at all. Anora hadn't really noticed him before, but he made her notice him now. He was clearly older than her, and she was likely one of the oldest of the hundred sent down, being only nine days from her review. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw he was wearing an old guard uniform. As she studied the uniform, she noticed he swallowed uncomfortably, like he was hiding something, but he stared her down nonetheless.

"What did they do to Factory Station?" asked the girl with him. Anora looked over to see her standing next to the guy. They had matching dark hair, but where his eyes were a deep brown, hers were green.

"Rations were halved to save food, they claimed they needed more for the other stations. Sky Box, I think, and Alpha."

The guy let go of her arm. "How did you know about this?"

"I worked in the kitchens. I was never meant to find out, but I was looking for something else for the Chef and I found a memo from Go-Sci telling the kitchen to restrict rations on Factory by 50%. I'm guessing as punishment for last years riots."

"They were protests, not riots," said Wells. "Why would they punish people for protesting? There must have been another reason."

"24 people were injured, Wells. I think it's safe to say the protests turned into riots."

"We're from Factory Station," said the girl. "Bellamy, I never noticed smaller rations."

The guy, Bellamy, turned to the girl and said, "It happened after you were arrested. They told us they were cutting rations on all the stations with 20%, not 50."

"Perhaps they changed their minds," said Wells, his voice hopeful. He looked directly at Anora. "Perhaps they decided to only cut 20%."

"And then lie about cutting rations on all stations?" said Bellamy, voice thick with disbelief. Wells looked to Anora for help or support. She was from Alpha after all, and Alpha kids always stuck together. A year ago, she would have supported him. Even if they weren't friends, even if she didn't quite believe him. The privileged were the few. They had to support each other. Otherwise the privileged joined the many, and others rose to privilege.

But Anora hadn't been locked up for a year to let go of all her principles now.

"Even 20% would be too much for a station that already had smaller rations. If they didn't mean to punish people, if they truly didn't have enough food for everybody, they would have cut from Alpha."

Wells looked at her in disbelief. He shook his head, turned around and walked into the dropship, leaving the other three behind.

"Hey, what's your name?" asked the girl suddenly, punching Anora gently in the arm. It wasn't even a punch, more of a one-sided fist bump.

"Anora," she said, smiling a little.

"I'm Octavia. This is my brother, Bellamy. So, what was that about?" she asked, sounding really curious. Bellamy raised his eyebrows, clearly interested as well.

"Nothing, really. Just a tree, and there are lots of those around."

Octavia looked confused, looked at Bellamy to see if he understood what she was on about. Anora couldn't read him, but looking between the two, something in her mind clicked. She said he was her brother?

"You're the girl from the dance."

Octavia looked at her with hurt written across her face. Anora immediately regretted saying anything.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to... It's just, I was there that night. And it wasn't fair. They shouldn't have punished you for something you had no control over."

"Not your fault." Octavia shrugged, but looked down at her boots, not meeting her gaze.

"Still. The law sucks," said Anora. She wanted to leave, to escape the awkward situation she had cause. However, she didn't want to seem as if she was running away, even if that was exactly what she was doing. Without looking at either of them, she hurried away, mumbling an excuse as she did.

"I'm gonna go see if I can find my friend."

* * *

 _So we've finally reached the ground! And we've met some of the delinquents. We'll meet up with the rest of them in the next one. And once again, thank you all for reading, following, favoriting and reviewing!_


	4. Chapter 4: Searching

**Disclaimer: I do not own the 100 or any of its characters. I have not read the books, so this story is based on the show.**

* * *

She didn't know where Clarke came from, but suddenly she was at the entrance to the dropship, hunched over a map. Anora found herself walking towards her when Wells decided to show up again. He exited the drop ship, and joined Clarke near the map. She stopped, not sure if she wanted to be near Wells just yet. Her father had told her to keep to Clarke, which was a good idea. Clarke might not be her best friend, but she had a good head on her shoulders. Besides, she couldn't find Nathan, so she decided to keep walking. She knew she was interrupting something; they were gazing intently at each other. If they were going to survive, she couldn't feel bad about small things like interrupting Wells' hourly sessions of staring at Clarke.

"Figure out where Mount Weather is, yet?" she said as she approached them.

"Anora?" said Clarke in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

Anora smiled. She'd forgotten that Clarke wouldn't know that the guards arrested her too. After all, solitary confinement wasn't the best place to hear the latest gossip.

"Treason. I hear that's what all the cool kids are doing nowadays."

Clarke gaped at her, and Anora could practically see her thoughts swirling in her head, trying to figure out what happened.

"So, Mount Weather?"

Clarke snapped out of her little time out, and turned back to the map.

"Uh, yeah, I know where we need to go."

Anora leaned over to look at the map, where Clarke had drawn a route. It didn't seem too far, a day's worth of walking perhaps. They would make it.

"Ah, cool, a map."

Anora turned to find another familiar, yet unexpected face.

"Jasper!"

"They got a bar in this town? I'll by you a beer," he joked, grinning at her like he had so often before. She grinned back. Despite knowing that he had somehow gotten himself arrested, it comforted her to see a someone she actually liked. But always had to Wells spoil all the fun as always.

"Do you mind?" he said, grabbing a hold of Jasper's shoulder and pushing him back. Jasper let out a small "whoa!" and backed up away from them. Before she could say anything to get Wells to ease off Jasper, the guy from the dropship walked up to them, with his group of minions in tow.

"Hey, hey, hey, hands off of him. He's with us."

Anora raised an eyebrow, shooting Jasper a look. The guy looked unfriendly, to say the least, and not someone she imagined Jasper would keep as company. The kid Jasper stood next to looked much more friendly, not to mention terrified of trouble. She seconded that emotion, with her father's words still fresh on her mind. Stay out of trouble, avoid the bad guys. Perhaps it was the slicked back hair, but the guy from the dropship didn't seem like one of the good guys. Not even if he defended Jasper.

Wells seemed to realize that as well, and tried to defuse the situation.

"Relax," he said. "We're just trying to figure out where we are."

"We're on the ground," called a voice, and Anora turned to see Bellamy, who had been keeping an eye on the situation along with Octavia. "That not good enough for you?"

Wells glanced at Clarke, before walking closer to Bellamy as he spoke.

"We need to find Mount Weather. You heard my father's message. That has to be our first priority."

Octavia scoffed at his words. "Screw your father. What, you think you're in charge here, you and your little princess?"

"Do you think we care who's in charge? We need to get to Mount Weather not because the Chancellor said so, but because the longer we wait, the hungrier we'll get and the harder this'll be. How long do you think we'll last without those supplies? We're looking at a twenty-mile trek, okay? So if we want to get there before dark, we need to leave now."

It seemed as if 'Sensible Clarke' had turned up. If Nathan had been there, Anora thought, he would be laughing at her like he always did. It happened every once in a while. Clarke would scold people who took risks, or even dared to push the limits. Nathan would always cough 'Sensible Clarke' under his breath, mocking her for being too uptight. But this time, it wasn't funny. They needed sensible if they were going to live much longer.

"They're right, Octavia," she said, and she could feel the eyes of the crowd on her. Especially Octavia's, who just looked disappointed.

"I wish being on the ground was about freedom to do what we want, but it's not. It's about survival. We need those supplies, and we need them as soon as possible. We should go now."

"I have a better idea," said Bellamy. "Let the two of them go, find it for us. Let the privileged to the hard work for a change."

The crowd seemed to agree with Bellamy. Anora could understand where he came from, where the distrust came from. Only a little while ago, Wells was defending the people who tried to starve him. But she felt bad, because she was from Alpha Station, too. Her father was also on the council. He didn't seem to have a problem with her. Had he not made the connection yet? She almost laughed. Thomas had told her that her name was on everyone's lips on the Ark, just like Clarke's. The councilors' daughters who committed treason. It was only a matter of time.

"You're not listening," said Wells. He looked out over the crowd. "We all need to go!" He'd barely finished speaking when the guy with the slicked back hair pushed him.

"Look at this, everybody... The Chancellor of Earth."

The guy stared down Wells like he was prey, and Anora found herself taking a few steps back to get away from him. She ended up next to Jasper and dark haired friend in the red jacket.

"You think that's funny?" said Wells, but the guy wouldn't listen. He kicked Wells' ankle, making him fall in the dirt. The crowd laughed. Clarke shouted Wells' name, and tried to run in to break up the fight, but one of the minions held her back.

"No, but that was," said the guy, watching Wells as he clumsily got to his feel and ready to fight. His ankle was clearly hurt. Anora felt torn. Try to help him, or do as her father said and stay out of trouble? And it was Wells after all. Not even an hour ago she wanted to punch him herself.

Then some guy jumped down from a ledge of the dropship, landing between the two fighting teenagers. Anora jumped in surprise, she hadn't seen him at all, nor did she know who he was.

"Kid's got one leg," he said. "How about you wait until it's a fair fight."

The guy with the slicked back hair studied him for a few tense seconds, before Octavia stepped up.

"Hey, Spacewalker!" She walked up to the guy, Spacewalker, and he turned to face her. "Rescue me next."

And just like that the fight was over. The crowd laughed and dispersed. The Spacewalker guy smiled at Octavia, but walked off shortly after. Clarke grabbed a hold of Wells and helped him over to the dropship entrance, where he sat down. In a matter of seconds, Anora was the only one who hadn't moved. Even Jasper had moved over to talk to some other guys, which hurt a little, but okay.

Knowing that Clarke would soon leave for Mount Weather, Anora decided to once again go through the crowd to look for Nathan. At least, she intended to do so, but Drew interrupted her.

"So, that Murphy guy is a dick," he said.

"That's his name? I've been calling him 'that guy from the corner' in my head," she joked. "Where's Roma?"

"I left her with some people over by the trees." He shrugged, but pointed in towards a few pine trees not too far away.

"Anyway, the Chancellor's son is getting on my nerves."

"He's getting on everyone's nerves, mostly because he's right."

"No," he said, shaking his head. "Clarke is right. Wells is just dancing to her tune, and trying to be his father."

"If he didn't take the heat, she would have to," she said, though she hadn't realized it herself before. "These kids need someone to be angry with. The Chancellor isn't here, but his son is. It's the next best thing. It's not right, because Wells is a much better person than his father, but it is only natural."

"Can't be easy being privileged."

"Shut up, you," she said, but laughed nonetheless. "Hey, you haven't seen Nathan Miller around, have you?"

"Don't know the guy, why?"

"He's my best friend. I was hoping to find him before heading to Mount Weather."

"Oh," said Drew, looking disappointed. "You're leaving with them, huh?"

"Why shouldn't I?"

"What if you get lost? Am I supposed to take care of Roma by myself?"

He was joking of course, but it made her think. Water, not food, was supposed to be first priority. The military base could have water of course, but chances were it was contaminated. Hiking twenty miles and back without finding a source of water would be reckless, especially if they hadn't eaten in a while. Even if they did find water on their way to the mountain, the camp would be without water until they got back.

"Anora!"

Clarke's voice distracted her from her thoughts. She turned around to see Clarke waving her over to the entrance of the dropship. She stood with a crowd of people that Anora assumed were the hiking party. Noticing Bellamy and Octavia among them, she walked over to see what Clarke wanted.

"We're leaving. Are you coming with us?"

She shook her head, and Clarke looked shocked. "Why not?"

"Yeah, come on, it will be fun! Monty and I are going," said Jasper, punching her lightly in the arm, then pointing to his friend in the red jacket. The ever famous Monty she'd heard so much about. She smiled slightly at her friend, but shook her head once more.

"We'll die of thirst before starvation. We need to find water, by the time you get back tomorrow, people are already bound to be dehydrated. And I still need to find Nathan."

"Smart," said Bellamy. She shot a quick look at Clarke, and Anora could tell she agreed, but seemed uneasy about leaving without her.

"Okay," said Clarke. "Let's go."

Jasper, Monty and Spacewalker took off immediately. Clarke walked over to say goodbye to Wells, but Octavia stayed behind. She looked at Bellamy, who nodded.

"Go on," he said, and Octavia grinned. She kissed his cheek and ran after the three boys. Bellamy watched her run after them for a few seconds with soft eyes, before noticing Anora looking at him, steeling his gaze.

"You're going to look for water? Alone?" he asked her.

"Yes."

"No," said Wells behind her. Anora turned just as he got to his feet. She saw Clarke's blonde hair disappear into the forest after the others.

"I'll go with her."

"You can barely walk," said Bellamy, adding "Chancellor," at the end to mock him.

"I'm fine. Let's go, Anora."

Wells started walking away from the drop ship, heading in a different direction than the one Clarke and the other went.

"You sure? You didn't seem to want his company earlier," said Bellamy. Wells stopped, realizing they were still having a conversation without him.

"Yeah, like I said, this is about survival," she said. "And Wells is in no shape to kill me, so I'm taking my chances with him."

Bellamy chuckled, shrugged and turned around to leave.

"Hey, Bellamy?"

He turned back around.

"Would you mind keeping an eye out for Nathan Miller? If you find him, tell him where I am, and that I'll be back, will you?"

Bellamy frowned a little, but nodded. "Sure."

"Thanks," she shot him a smile, before walking up to Wells. "Let's get going before we get thirsty."

* * *

They had been looking for water for a couple of hours without any luck, but they weren't too worried. In the beauty of the forest, Anora found herself forgetting that she was upset with Wells. Their mission was water, but the forest kept distracting them. They found plants everywhere, ones they hadn't heard of, and ones they had. They probably spent too much of their time discussing plants than actually looking for water.

"Hey, look! Wood sorrels! Those are edible!"

Beneath his feet were a field of small, white flowers, with clover-like leaves. He'd trampled a few of them, but the field of flowers stretched pretty far. They seemed to be everywhere.

"We should collect them," said Wells. "Just in case."

The pair leaned down to pick them up. It must have been quite a sight, two teenagers wandering the forest, picking flowers. Anora found herself glad that Wells was the one with her. They had been paired up for a Botany project in Earth Skills back on the Ark, and they totally nailed it. He was good. Together, they would probably be able to a lot more edible plants than just wood sorrel.

"Get the roots, too," said Anora. "Wells, this is great! Grounders used to chew on these to ease their thirst."

"At least we'll bring back something if we don't find water," said Wells, seeming relieved. Anora looked at him, about to ask him why he was worried, but he spoke before she could.

"We should bring these back to camp, show them to the others, let them know what to look for. And collect some wood for a fire, while we're at it."

Wells stuffed his flowers into his pockets, and turned back into the direction to camp, leaving Anora in the field of flowers. She huffed, a little annoyed that he made the decision for them, instead of asking her opinion.

Taking a few more seconds, she decided to use her jacket to carry the wood sorrels. She slipped it off, and laid it down on the ground with the flowers, grabbing as many plants, leaves, and roots she could. Once she felt she had enough, she zipped up the jacket. She tied the ties at the bottom together to make sure that the flowers wouldn't fall out, and tied the sleeves diagonally across her chest. Her very own makeshift backpack, which probably looked ridiculous. Despite this, she didn't care. She was proud of her invention. Not to mention she managed to collect and carry a lot more than Wells, which made her smirk a little to herself before heading after him.

Wells hadn't gotten far. With his injured foot, and trying to collect wood as he went, he was not making good time. Anora had only walked for a couple of minutes when she caught up with him. He already had his hands full. When he saw her, he frowned, like he was annoyed with her, until he noticed her backpack. He nodded in confirmation, which made her roll her eyes. She didn't need his confirmation. She was more than capable of making her own decisions without the need for someone to pat her on the head and tell her 'good job'.

The two walked together back to camp. He handed her most of the wood he had been carrying, so he could pick up more every so often while walking. This way she wouldn't have to bend over and lose all the flowers in her pack. They spoke little, only a few words after reaching camp.

"We should head out again in a little while."

"Maybe go East this time?"

They reached the dropship to drop off the wood they had gathered.

"I'm gonna go talk to Bellamy, maybe he can do something about the flowers. Get a group together or something, go out looking for edible plants, I don't know."

She dropped the wood in her arms next to the ship, and glanced back at Wells who was still limping behind her, before taking off across camp to Bellamy. She passed Murphy and one of his minions on the way, taking note of his glare, and a what looked to be a knife made out of dropship metal.

Bellamy was standing a little ways away, showing a couple of the older kids how to sharpen pieces of metal. Presumably to make more knives. A little further behind him, a group of girls were cutting up pieces of the parachute. Anora noticed that Roma was one of them. Roma smiled at her and gave her a wave, and Anora grinned back, happy to see that she seemed much calmer than before.

"Hey," she said, approaching Bellamy. He looked up, and grinned as he saw her approaching. "Nice going. Are we setting up camp here?"

Bellamy nodded. He pointed at the girls behind him, "they're making tents."

He pointed to the two guys next to him, "and these are making tools. Did you find water?"

Anora shook her head, and Bellamy swore under his breath.

"We're heading back out again. What we did find is wood sorrel," she said, and removed the makeshift backpack. She dropped it to the ground and unzipped it. Bellamy joined her in a crouch to see.

"Flowers?" he asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Not so easily impressed, then?" Anora joked.

"They're edible," she explained. "Grounders used them to alleviate thirst. If we can't find any water today, at least we have woods teeming with these. It might make the night and tomorrow a bit more bearable, at least until Clarke returns with supplies."

Bellamy nodded, this time looking a little more impressed. He grabbed one of the flowers, sniffed it and ate it, stem, leaves and all. He made a grimace, before looking back at Anora with a playful glare.

"They're sour. Tell me you didn't just poison me."

She laughed. "They're supposed to be. The roots should be boiled, though, so stay away from them for now."

Bellamy stood back up, looking down at her. "I can't say I'm not disappointed that you didn't find any water, but you did good. I'll see if I can send some of the kids out to find more."

"Try to find someone who at least passed Botany in Earth Skills, will you?"

"I'll see what I can do. Take your flowers and see if you can find a container for them in the dropship. Oh, and by the way," he said. "A kid named Miller's been looking for you."

Anora jumped up immediately, grinning wildly.

"Really? Where is he?"

Bellamy looked amused at her reaction. He shook his head, trying to keep from laughing.

"Bellamy!" she scolded. "Tell me!"

"I sent him to clear out the dropship for chairs, seat belts, anything useful."

Anora turned on her heel to head to the dropship, but Bellamy grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She looked up at him in confusion, but he only pointed down to her feet. The flowers and her jacket were still on the ground, and she had almost trampled them. He gave her a pointed look, but let go of her arm. She replied to his look with a cheeky grin, but sat down to gather her jacket, before hurrying off to the dropship.

* * *

The dropship's first level was almost empty when she got there. A few chairs were left, and a few seat belts were lying around. From the second level, she could hear the sound of people rummaging. To the left of the entrance was the container that held the maps Clarke took with her to Mount Weather. It was really only a metal box, not very big, but more than enough to contain flowers. She dropped them inside, before climbing the ladder up to the second level.

She heard him before she saw him. He was telling someone else to pull harder, and she almost giggled. Trying not to be too much of a teenager, she held back the laughter. She climbed off the ladder and to the floor, turning around to look for her friend.

Nathan was pulling one of the red seat belts from one of the chairs along with another boy. The belt was seemingly stuck, and she wondered why they hadn't gotten something to cut it loose instead of trying to pull.

"Need a hand?" she asked, grinning widely.

"Nah, we got this," said the other boy, and almost didn't notice that Nathan had dropped the seat belt at the sound of her voice. He didn't move or talk, just stared at her. The boy hit Nathan to make him get back to work, but Nathan ignored him and started walking towards Anora. His face was completely blank, and for a while, she worried that he wasn't happy to see her.

"You know, you were the one who kept telling me to stay out of trouble," he said. "Then you go and get yourself arrested."

"You got arrested first."

"Just because the other kids do something bad, doesn't mean you have to do it," he said, mocking the way his parents always talked to him to keep him out of trouble. His face broke out into a grin, and she couldn't help but grin back. With two big steps towards her, he was close enough to put his arms around her into a bone-crushing hug. She would have laughed, but she didn't have enough air in her lungs to do so. Most of it had left her body when he hugged her. She didn't mind, just smiled into his shoulder like she always did. The feeling of the floor suddenly disappeared from underneath her feet. She realized that he had picked her up, and she could now see over his shoulder.

The other kids on the floor had stopped whatever they were doing, and were mostly just staring at the scene unfolding in front of them.

"Hey, Miller! How 'bout you let the girl go and keep helping us with this stuff?" called one of the other guys. He didn't seem angry, in fact, they were pretty much all grinning from what she could tell. Nathan put her back down on the floor, but didn't let her go completely. He let an arm wrap around her waist, as he turned back to the guys, glaring at them.

"I think we've all deserved a break, don't you guys?" said the guy who had been working with Nathan, winking at Anora as he did so.

Now that she had regained some air in her lungs, Anora laughed. She knew what it looked like, and it didn't bother her one bit. It wasn't the first time someone assumed that she was involved with Nathan. In fact, it happened quite frequently since they grew into their teenage years. The first few times it had been embarrassing, but then they had been the age where everything was embarrassing.

"No, don't stop on my account. I should go, anyway."

"What?" said Nathan. "I just found you! And now you're leaving?"

"Hey," she replied, pushing a finger into his chest. "I was the one who found you. And I'll find you again later."

"Why?"

"I'm going back out to find water with Wells."

Some of the boys on the dropship scoffed, and some chuckled. Even Nathan narrowed his eyes.

"With Wells? Chancellor of Earth?"

"I know he's not been very likable lately-"

"He was never likable," interrupted Nathan, and the other boys laughed. Anora, however, sighed.

"I know, okay?" she said. "But we need to find water as soon as possible. I would have asked you to come, but I couldn't find you. Wells volunteered, and we're going back out to look."

"And Bellamy let you go with him?" said the guy who had been working with Nathan on the seat belt.

Anora shot him a confused look. "What does he have to do with anything?"

"He's the one taking charge."

"What's your name?" she asked him.

"Jones," he replied.

"Well, Jones, Bellamy doesn't have to let me do anything. I don't answer to him. I'm glad he's taking charge, because someone has to. But he doesn't control me, and he doesn't control you, either."

She could tell the boys weren't to happy with her little speech. Jones only shrugged, but several of the others were shaking their heads at her. It made her wonder how they were already so loyal to Bellamy when she had only been gone a few hours.

Sensing it was time to leave, she turned to Nathan, "I'll come find you when I get back."

Nathan nodded. "Stay safe."

He pulled her into another hug, this one much gentler.

"Longest year of my life," he whispered in her ear. They pulled away, and she smiled and winked at him.

"Tell me about it."

* * *

Even after hours of searching, they still hadn't found water. They did find some wild garlic and some pigweed, stopping to eat some themselves and filling their pockets like before. Wells was hesitant to go too far from the drop ship, in case they couldn't find their way back before dark, so the ended up circling it instead. After a little while the sky stared to darken, and they turned back. They managed to arrive back at camp just in time before it got too dark to see where they were going.

Upon returning to camp, Anora was pleased to see that they had gotten a fire going. Most of the kids had gathered around it, some were cheering. She smiled. At least they were having a little fun.

The two headed into the dropship, to leave the garlic and the pigweed in the container. However, it turned out that the container was mostly empty. Only the wood sorrel roots were left.

"I guess they already ate, then," said Wells. "I'm gonna go check with Bellamy. Tell him what we found."

Anora nodded, opting to stay in the dropship and figure out how to store the plants. She found some wire lying around on the other side of the floor, and she used it to bundle up the wood sorrel roots. Next she wrapped the rest of the wire around the pigweed and laid the two bundles at the bottom of the container. She found a small piece of parachute lying around on the other side of the dropship, and she used it to wrap up the wild garlic.

"Whatever the hell we want! Whatever the hell we want!"

Suddenly the cheering from outside wasn't just happy cheering, but chanting. Anora hurried to the entrance of the dropship. She saw Wells and Bellamy staring each other down, while the rest were still chanting. On the ground by the fire she saw several of the metal wristbands lying open, and a few of the kids were rubbing their wrists while chanting. Not again, she thought, thinking of Wells' knack of getting people to hate him. She could only imagine what had happened, but she was pretty sure she had a decent picture.

The sky roared like she had, making her jump. Thunder? She thought, as water rushed down from the sky. Like someone had dropped one of the oceans on them. The crowd cheered, and she couldn't help but smile herself as she watched the kids get soaked in rain, dancing as they did. They were all going to get sick, she thought, but at least they were happy. And rainwater was still water. It could be collected.

Many of the kids, however, decided that the dropship would be a good place to hide from the rain. She got out of their way as dozens of kids streamed through the entrance. One of them was Bellamy.

"Hey," she said. " We found some more edible plants, so we have breakfast for tomorrow. What was that stare-down about? What did Wells tell you?"

Bellamy turned to her and grinned. "Nothing important."

"Looks like you missed the rain." He pointed at her dry clothes.

"Can't say I'm sad about it."

He laughed again. Clearly, he was in a good mood.

"So, are you ready to take off your fancy bracelet yet?"

Anora frowned. "Why would I do that?"

Bellamy's smile disappeared. He studied her for a few seconds, choosing his words carefully.

"To send a message to the Ark. That we're free, that they can't control us anymore. We make our own choices."

Anora shook her head at him. He had it all wrong. "These wristbands are not about freedom. They're about survival."

He stepped closer to her, almost hurriedly, like he was desperate. She took a few steps back, but he followed. He needed to convince her, to get her on his side, she realized. But why?

"You've shown us that we can survive without them. You grew up on Agro, worked in the kitchens, and now you've already started gathering food. Don't you see? We can do this without them."

Several things dawned on her. He hadn't figured out that she was Kane's daughter because she told him she worked on Agro. And he needed her, because she knew what was edible in the forest and how to prepare it. Most likely, she knew better than anyone of the hundred. She remembered the guys working with Nathan, how they were already loyal to him. The girls he had fixing up the parachutes to make tents, and the boys making tools.

He wasn't just trying to keep everyone alive, he was trying to get himself in charge by swooping in and saving them. And he needed her to do that.

"I didn't grow up on Agro. I was recruited," she said carefully, testing the waters to see if he took the bait.

"Even better. That just means you're good at what you do."

Anora couldn't help but think that Bellamy was an idiot. How he hadn't figured out that she was not one of his people yet, was beyond her. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, because he was desperate to get her on his side. It didn't matter. She wasn't taking of her wristband.

"I'm not taking it off."

"Fine," he said casually. He stepped back and shrugged his shoulders. "I won't force you. But what are you really achieving? The Ark locked you up, and now you want to help them?"

She shook her head. "Look, I don't know if I want them to come down here. If we can find supplies and proper shelter, maybe we're better off. Maybe we'll survive without them. Maybe we can build a better society here than on the Ark. I don't know, but then again, neither do you. What I do know is that our chances are much better if they know we're still alive. Even you have to admit that."

"So you think they will pardon everyone? Just like that?"

"I don't know. Maybe all we get are retrials. But those retrials will be held under the Exodus Charter, not under Ark Laws. If they come down here, the floating stops. At least we will be alive."

Bellamy scowled. "Being alive isn't the same as living. Just ask Octavia."

She didn't have a reply to that. He was right of course. She couldn't call the past year of her life 'living' even if she had been alive. He stared at her, but she could only nod.

"Anora! There you are! I thought you said you would find me?"

Nathan appeared at the dropship entrance. Bellamy turned his head to look at him, before turning back to Anora. He leaned in close adn whispered, "I'll convince you yet." Without another look at her, he turned back around and headed back outside. Nathan looked at Anora, confusion written across his face.

"What was that about?"

Anora shook her head, not wanting to get into that conversation with Nathan, too.

"Did you find somewhere to sleep? I'm so exhausted I could sleep for a week."

Nathan grinned. "I set up a tent outside. I'll share it with you if you don't mind it being a little cramped."

"A slumber party then? Bring it on, Miller!"

* * *

 **Once again, thank you everyone for the reviews, follows and favorites. I'll try not to be as slow to get the next one out. My summer job is really taking up a lot of my time, but I have a couple of days off this coming week, so I'll definitely get some writing done. Hope everyone else has a good summer!**


	5. Chapter 5: To Fight

**Disclaimer: I do not own the 100 or any of its characters. I have not read the books, so this story is based on the show.**

* * *

Nathan hadn't been lying when he told her it would be cramped. For an hour, the two tossed and turned to find a comfortable position for the both, ending up with Nathan stretched out on his back. He was resting his head on Anora's jacket. Anora was curled up into a fetal position, her head placed on Nathan's ribcage.

When she woke, this was not the case. He had somehow managed to shift so that he was practically draped over her, arms around her middle and his head on her chest. Her head was lying on the ground next to her jacket, and she had one arm lightly draped over Nathan's shoulders, . One of her feet was poking out from underneath the wall of the tent.

She couldn't help but giggle at the situation, causing Nathan to wake up as well. He groaned and tried to bury his head into her chest, making her giggle turn into a full blown laugh. It was then that she realized the tent was like a sauna. The sun glaring down at the tent, obviously trying to cook them alive, which meant it was possibly quite late already.

"Why are you laughing?" he mumbled into her sweater, still not looking up. She patted a hand on his shoulder.

"Get off me, you big goof."

This made him raise his head, looking directly at her smiley face, before looking down at her chest again. He let a cheeky grin adorn his face, before rolling off her and sitting up.

"Sorry."

She rolled her eyes at him, removing her sweater due to the heat and leaving her in only her old, gray tank top.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"I'm guessing almost midday. Sounds like everyone else is up," she replied. Outside she could hear the 100 rummage through the camp, laughing and shouting. It seemed as if they were all having a good time still. She wondered when that would end. Soon enough, she supposed.

Nathan yawned audibly. "I'm gonna go back to sleep," he said, and turned to lie back down.

"No, you're not," said Anora, and pulled at his arm to get him to sit back upright. "You're gonna come with me to see if anyone was smart enough to collect the rain that came down last night, and have something to drink."

"You're not as dumb as you look, Kane."

Before she could come back with a witty retort, she heard Wells' voice right outside their tent. Once again he sounded defensive.

"We share based on need! Just like back home."

Nathan groaned. "What's he gotten himself into this time?"

They got out of the tent, only to see Wells and a guy with dark hair staring each other down. Bellamy was coming out of the dropship with a girl. Both of them seemed to have forgotten how to dress themselves, as they were shirtless.

"You still don't get it, do you, Chancellor?" He said, before kissing the girl and sending her on her way. Anora couldn't help but roll her eyes at the display. She was getting pretty tired with Bellamy and his need show to prove his superiority over the other guys in the camp. It didn't matter if she found him attractive without a shirt on, and curly hair in his eyes. She didn't grow up around the people on the Council without recognizing power play. Bellamy was just lobbying for votes. After all, government was just a glorified popularity contest.

"This is home now. Your father's rules no longer apply."

Bellamy walked towards Wells and took a shirt from Wells' hands. Wells tried to moved to take it back, but the other guy held him in place.

Bellamy chuckled. "Oh, no, no, Atom. Atom, hold up."

The guy, Atom, let go of Wells. Bellamy held up the shirt in his hand and said, "you want it back?" Take it."

"What's going on?" asked Anora, deciding to end the staring match between Wells and Bellamy. The three guys turned their heads to finally notice Anora and Nathan standing at the entrance of their tent. Wells turned back to glare at Bellamy right away, but Atom smirked at the sight. He nudged Bellamy with his elbow, and looked at him, expecting a smirk in reply, but Bellamy ignored him. He was busy glancing back and forth between Anora and Nathan, before stopping to stare at Nathan. Anora frowned and looked over at her friend, only to see him having crossed his arms. He was returning Bellamy's stare with a deathly glare she knew well.

Boys.

The stare down ended when Wells threw the rest of the clothes in his hands at a group of kids hanging around a fire. They jumped at the clothes like vultures at their prey, fighting each other for clothing that they would likely ruin in their fight.

"Is this what you want?" Wells said to Bellamy. "Chaos?"

Bellamy smirked, and slipped on the shirt he had already taken from Wells. "What's wrong with a little chaos?"

A girl screamed, and the smirk Bellamy that had danced upon his lips faded, and instead a frown appeared. He hurried towards the sound, with the others in tow.

A little further from the dropship, they found Murphy, holding a girl close to one of the fires. She was clearly struggling to get out of his grip, but Murphy held her tight and wouldn't let go. When they approached him, he turned to them with a proud look on his face.

"Bellamy," he said, as most of the others in camp closed in to see what was going on. "Check it out. We want the Ark to think the ground is killing us, right? Figure it'll would be better if we suffer a little first."

Anora could feel dread spreading from her chest to every part of her body. Murphy was sick, truly sick to think of something like this. Closed in on the scene, stopping next to Bellamy.

Wells ran forward to shove Murphy off the girl, shouting for him to let her go. Murphy fell back, and the girl was free.

"This is what's wrong with chaos!" said Anora, shoving Bellamy away from her. For a split second, Bellamy looked shocked at her outburst. He quickly composed himself again with that steely gaze he always wore. She was staring him down, when Nathan appeared beside her. He grabbed her arm to move her further away from their leader, but Bellamy had already moved his attention back to Wells.

Wells had turned his back to Murphy again. He looked at Bellamy for help, not noticing Murphy getting to his feet.

"You can stop this," he said.

"Stop this?" asked Bellamy. He shot a look over at Anora, before giving a little nod to Murphy who had moved up to stand a few feet on Wells' left. "I'm just getting started."

Murphy did as commanded, and attacked Wells by punching him in the face. The people who had gathered around yelled in surprise, but Anora noticed she was the only one who called for Murphy to stop.

"Fight! Fight!"

Anora yanked her arm out of Nathan's grasp, and despite his protests, she hurried back over to Bellamy. She got right in front of him, so that he couldn't ignore her. Once more a brief surprised look crossed his face, before turning into amusement. Bellamy was a several inches taller than her. If she hadn't been so angry with him, the way he looked down at her would have made her feel inferior. However, she didn't feel anything but anger and desperation to make him understand.

"Make them stop, please!"

Bellamy only shook his head. She nearly screamed out in frustration. How could he not see that if Murphy was allowed to do whatever he wanted, it would end badly for everyone? It didn't matter how much supplies Clarke and the others would find, they couldn't survive if they were trying to kill each other.

The sound of a body slamming against the ground sounded. Anora turned around to see Murphy on top of Wells, trying to get in as many hits as he could. She rushed to help Wells, to stop the fight or to punch Murphy herself, she wasn't sure. But Bellamy caught her arm, and pulled her back.

"Don't be stupid," he growled. She tried to yank her arm away from him, but he wouldn't let go, only tightened his grip.

Wells managed to flip Murphy over, and got on top. He hit him, slammed his head into the ground, and finished with another punch in the face, before getting up and facing Bellamy. She felt her arm be released, and watched as Bellamy shifted in his stance, as if readying for an attack.

"Don't you see you can't control this?" said Wells, pointing back at Murphy. Bellamy eased up his tense stance.

Behind Wells, Murphy slipped his knife out of his pockets and got to his feet. Anora felt another wave of dread rush through her.

"You're dead," he said, in between heavy breaths. He glared at Wells, and went to attack him, knife clenched in his fist.

"Wait!" ordered Bellamy as he stepped between them, holding a hand up to stop Murphy. Anora let out a sigh of relief, and felt her entire body relax. Until she saw the red knife Bellamy held up for Wells.

"Fair fight," he said, and dropped it at Wells' feet, getting out of their way, grabbing Anora once again by the arm and pulling her with him.

"You idiot," she snarled at him when he stopped moving, only a few feet away from the two boys. She knew he was stronger than her, and did not try to pull out of his grasp this time. All she could do was watch as Wells picked up the knife, and watch the bloodlust dancing in Murphy's eyes as he smiled.

Murphy lunged at Wells a few times, but Wells stepped away. The entire fight had a new feel to it, and they were both more hesitant. Neither of them dared making the wrong move. She could tell this would end badly. There would be no black eyes after this fight, only blood.

Murphy lunged again, and Wells tried to step aside, but with another reach, Murphy managed to cut Wells' arm. Wells let out a cry of pain, and cradled his arm.

"Please, Bellamy," she said, pleading him to stop the fight. But even if he had decided to listen to her this time, it would have been too late. Murphy lunged again.

"This is for my father!" he called, getting in close with the knife. But he failed, and Wells managed to turn him around, and brought his knife to Murphy's neck. Bellamy's hand fell from Anora's arm as he stepped forward. This was not the outcome he had hoped for, she thought.

"Drop it!" ordered Wells, but they were interrupted by another voice.

"Wells!"

From the edge of the forest, Clarke appeared, with Spacewalker right on her heels. She rushed forward and to Wells' side. Further behind them, Monty was helping Octavia as she seemed to be limping.

"Let him go!" said Clarke, giving Wells a horrified look.

Wells didn't hesitate long before he shoved Murphy to the ground, away from him. Murphy got to his feet in a hurry, and moved to attack once again.

"Whoa, hey, enough, Murphy!" This time, however, Bellamy stopped him. He got in front of Murphy, and with both hands on his shoulders, he forced him back.

"Octavia!"

As Murphy eased up, Bellamy rushed towards his sister, taking over for Monty. Anora walked over as well to see the damage. The leg of her jumpsuit was covered in blood.

"Are you all right?"

He lifted her over a log on the ground, giving a nod of thanks to Monty, before turning back to Clarke.

"Where's the food?" he asked. But Clarke looked clueless as about what she would reply.

"We didn't make it to Mount Weather," explained Spacewalker as he sat down on the log of one of the fallen trees to rest.

"You don't say," muttered Anora. She motioned for Bellamy to help her, and together they moved Octavia to another log so she could sit down and rest her leg.

"What the hell happened out there?" Bellamy demanded, as he sat down next to Octavia.

"We were attacked," said Clarke. She was wide eyed and breathing quite heavily, whether from their hike or fear, Anora couldn't tell.

"Attacked?" asked Wells for confirmation, like he didn't truly believe it. Clarke turned her attention to him. "By what?"

"Not what," said Spacewalker. "Who. It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn't the last Grounder."

A wave of shock passed through the crowd. Everyone had stayed to find out what happened, even when the fight was over. Some even voiced opinions of disbelief. Anora looked around to find Nathan, who was standing a little ways away. His eyes were narrow, and he looked unsure if Spacewalker was telling the truth. Next to him, she noticed Drew, who was shaking his head openly. She only had a short second to wonder when they became friends, before Clarke interrupted her thoughts.

"It's true," she said, and turned to the crowd. "Everything we thought we knew about the ground is wrong. There are people here, survivors. The good news is, that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us."

"The bad news is, the grounders will," said Spacewalker. Once again, the crowd reacted. This time, fear spread through them like fire.

"Hey, ease up, drama queen," Anora said loudly. She spoke to Spacewalker, but meant for the crowd to hear her, to reassure them that they weren't dead yet. "We don't know that for sure. One encounter with grounders doesn't mean we're all doomed."

"Tell that to Jasper," said Monty, shooting her a nasty look. She turned to him, to ask him what he meant, but noticed that she hadn't seen Jasper anywhere since they got back.

"What do you mean? Where is he?" She asked, but Monty didn't reply. "Clarke?"

"Jasper was hit. They took him."

Anora couldn't help but gasp audibly, and slap her hand over her mouth. Someone had taken Jasper. Was he dead? What did she mean, took him?

"Where's your wristband?"

Once again Clarke pulled Anora out of her thoughts with the question aimed at Wells. She grabbed Wells arm to see there was nothing there.

"Ask him." said Wells coldly, as he nodded in Bellamy's direction. Anora turned to Bellamy in disbelief.

"Did you make him take it off?" she asked Bellamy. "What happened to 'I won't force you'?"

Bellamy didn't look at her, preferring to enter another staring contest with Wells instead. He looked at him as if Wells had betrayed his secret. For a second he looked like he was worried about the consequences, about their reaction.

"How many?" demanded Clarke, but Bellamy didn't answer her.

"24 and counting," said Murphy, puffing his chest. Clarke wasn't impressed at all.

"You idiots," she whispered, before she spoke up. "Life support on the Ark is failing. That's why they brought us down here. They need to know the ground is survivable again, and we need their help against whoever is out there! If you take your wristbands off, you're not just killing them. You're killing us!"

Shock ran through Anora's body. She had no idea that this was the secret they floated Jake to keep quiet, that Clarke was arrested for. Anora thought back to what her father had said in her cell. 'This is the only way. We need to know if the Earth is survivable.' It had only been a 24 hours since he said those words, but what Clarke told them now explained everything.

But Bellamy disagreed. He walked over to face the crowd.

"We're stronger than you think," he said. "Don't listen to her. She's one of the privileged. If they come down, she'll have it good. How many of you can say the same? We can take care of ourselves. That wristband on your arm? It makes you a prisoner. We are not prisoners anymore! They say they'll forgive your crimes. I say you're not criminals! You're fighters, survivors! The Grounders should worry about us!"

She couldn't help but think that Bellamy was very good at giving terrible speeches. The crowd seemed to agree with her, at least the first part, chanting various 'yeahs' in agreement.

"You would send them all to their death? Just like that?" said Anora, eyes wide with disappointment. Bellamy didn't turn around to face her.

"Are you really that selfish? Your sister is safely on the ground, so damn the rest, right? Is that how it is?" she taunted, but Bellamy still didn't turn around to face her.

"I don't know about the rest of you," she called to the crowd. "But I've got family up there, friends, people I care about that I don't want to die!"

She didn't hear the chants of agreement that Bellamy's speech received, but many of the kids were nodding their heads. Several others looked guiltily down at their feet. Whatever Bellamy said now to further his cause, she thought, would only make him seem like an insensitive asshole, and make more people would agree with her. But Murphy didn't care about coming off like an asshole.

"Yeah, we all know who you got up there," said Murphy calmly, walking over to stand right beside her. "So forgive me if I don't cry too many tears if Councilor Kane kicks the bucket."

This made Bellamy turn around, looking at her with betrayal written all over his face. So he finally figured it out, she thought. Behind him, she could see Nathan rubbing his face with both hands. She could practically hear his thoughts going 'no, no, no!'. Most of the crowd wore looks of disgust on their faces. Some just looked confused, not understanding what Murphy implied.

Well, she thought, if only they knew how disappointed her father would be, they wouldn't really care. She had yet to find water, and only found a limited amount of food. She had let Clarke go on a hike, leaving her alone with mostly thugs. When she found Nathan, she left him immediately afterwards.

Yes, her father would be very proud, indeed.

* * *

Clarke stormed out of the dropship, glaring at the ground as she walked.

"Clarke!"

She looked up at the sound of Anora's voice, but didn't stop. Anora had to run to catch up with her.

"I was looking for you. Are you heading out to find Jasper?"

Clarke didn't answer, only nodded. Anora could now tell where she was going. She had her eyes set on Bellamy and Octavia. Octavia was sitting on a fallen tree log, and Bellamy was tending to her leg. Close to them, Atom and Murphy were standing guard.

"I'll come with you," she said, seeing Wells running to catch up with them.

"You could have been killed," she heard Bellamy say, obviously talking about the leg. She had heard a rumor that she was bitten by a river monster. Most people in camp didn't believe that, calling it impossible. Anora thought they had all too quickly forgotten that they were on a radiation soaked ground. This ground was not the friendly one from before the Ark. The one that had cats, dogs and bunnies.

"She would have been if Jasper didn't jump in to pull her out," said Clarke as she approached them.

"You guys leaving? I'm coming too." Octavia tried to get up, but was pushed back down by Bellamy.

"No, no. No way. Not again."

"He's right," Clarke told Octavia. "Your leg's just gonna slow us down. I'm here for you."

She turned to Bellamy, who looked surprised.

"Clarke, what are you doing?" protested Wells, but she ignored him. Anora couldn't help but think that was strange.

"I hear you have a gun," she said, and Bellamy lifted his shirt to show them the handgun he had tucked into the back of his pants.

"How do you-" Anora started to say, but Clarke interrupted her.

"Good. Follow me." She started to walk away but Bellamy stopped her.

"And why would I do that?"

"Because you want them to follow you. And right now, they're thinking only one of us is scared."

Clarke turned to walk away again, but this time, Anora stopped her.

"Wait, Clarke, are we really not going to ask him how he has a gun? Am I the only one worried about this?"

"What, don't you trust me?" asked Bellamy, with a smirk on his lips, but his eyes were dark. Octavia rolled her eyes behind him.

"No, I don't," she replied simply. Bellamy's smirk fell. "Not two hours ago you were telling us you're willing to sacrifice two thousand people for whatever your selfish agenda is. Yes, I'm worried that you have a gun."

"You didn't seem to have a problem with me yesterday."

"I didn't realize you came down here to kill us all yesterday."

"I'm not the one whose father sent us down here. If I remember correctly, that was yours," he snarled. He walked towards her in an attempt to intimidate, but he underestimated her. She stood her ground, and he ended up almost walking into her. He was so close she could feel the heat of his body. Looking up at him, she returned his glare, opening her mouth with a comeback she wasn't even sure of.

"Hey! Cut it out!" said Clarke, interrupting them. Bellamy's head snapped to the side to look at Clarke, but Anora only lowered her gaze to his chest. He was breathing quite heavily, she noticed. Why was he so angry? She hadn't said anything that wasn't true, after all. Then again, neither had he.

Clarke looked between Anora and Bellamy. "We're wasting time. We need to go now if we're gonna find Jasper."

She turned around and walked till she disappeared out of sight into the trees, with Wells following close behind her. Anora took another look at Bellamy, who was now no longer glaring at her, but wore the steeled mask she had gotten used to yesterday.

"Sorry," she said, so quickly and quietly, she wasn't sure Bellamy even heard her. Not waiting for a response, she turned around towards the green of the forest to run after Clarke and Wells.

* * *

Once she caught up with them, Clarke and Wells fell quiet. She didn't understand why. Back on the dropship they never stopped talking and joking around. They walked through the forest in rapid speed, and Anora worried how far she could keep up with them. She supposed Clarke couldn't keep up the pace for very long, either. After her year in solitary, she wasn't exactly in the best shape of her life, and neither would Clarke be. She made a mental note to start exercising more once things calmed down a little.

They had been walking for a while when Bellamy decided he wanted to catch up with the three, Murphy hot on his heels.

"Hey, hold up!" he said, holding the gun he had in his hand in the air.

"Don't wave that thing around!" scolded Anora, but Bellamy didn't listen, just rolled his eyes at her. For a second he looked much younger. Almost like he belonged with the rest of them.

"What's the rush? You don't survive a spear through the heart."

"Put the gun away, Bellamy!" said Wells and moved in to make him, but Murphy was there, defending Bellamy's honor. He placed a hand on Wells' shoulder, and pushed him away with force.

"Well, why don't you do something about it, huh?" he challenged, once again looking for a fight. If Wells had pigtails then Anora was pretty sure Murphy would be yanking them by now.

"Jasper screamed when they moved him," said Clarke, looking at Bellamy. She seemed to have no time for the petty fighting between the two boys. "If the spear struck his heart, he'd have died instantly. That doesn't mean we have time to waste."

She turned to start moving again, but Bellamy grabbed her right arm, holding up her wristband.

"As soon as you take off this wristband, we can go."

Clarke pulled her arm out of his grasp. She gave him a look that said pretty much what Anora was thinking. What an amateur. If Bellamy really thought he could get Clarke to give up that easily, he had another thing coming.

"The only way the Ark is gonna think I'm dead, is if I'm dead," she said coldly. "Got it?"

Bellamy lips turned upwards into amusement, as he looked between Clarke and Wells. He almost seemed impressed.

"Brave princess."

"Hey, why don't you find your own nickname?" a voice called from behind them. The party of five turned to see Spacewalker emerging from the bushes, glaring at Bellamy.

"You call this a rescue mission?" he asked. Anora couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. She could never tell with him, everything he said sounded sarcastic. Not that it mattered. She was thankful. Once again, Spacewalker had defused the situation by showing up unexpected.

"Got to split up, cover more ground. Clarke, come with me."

* * *

 **And here we are, on our way to save Jasper! Once again, thank you all for the follows, the favorites and the reviews!**


	6. Chapter 6: The Walk

**Disclaimer: I do not own the 100 or any of its characters. I have not read the books, so this story is based on the show.**

* * *

Anora hadn't wanted to team up with any of the three boys Clarke and Finn left her with, but if she had to chose one, she would have chosen Wells. How she ended up walking ahead of Bellamy and Wells together with Murphy, she wasn't sure. But she blamed Bellamy. For some reason, since she had woken up that morning, Bellamy was to blame for everything.

At first, having Murphy as her hiking partner wasn't so bad. He didn't rush through the woods like Clarke had, but set a more even and sightly slower pace. For the most part he stayed away from leading her into wet grass, so her boots were dry. And he kept quiet for a long time, which Anora was immensely grateful for. But eventually, boredom seemed to take Murphy, too.

"So, how did you end up down here, Kane?"

Anora didn't answer him at first. She walked past him, and now she was the one leading them into the forest. She kept sight of Clarke and Spacewalker ahead of them to the left, and tried to focus on anything but Murphy. He knew how she ended up on the ground, just like he knew how Clarke was arrested. Thanks to him, the whole camp knew. He didn't care, he just wanted to get under her skin.

"C'mon, don't be like that."

Murphy caught up to her, and was now walking at her side. It was a bit hard to do in the forest, and a few times he had to duck away from incoming trees, but he managed well.

"You know why. I was arrested, just like you."

Murphy smirked. "Not just like me, though. I heard Jaha himself was the one to give the order for your arrest."

"What can I say, he didn't like being called a murderer."

Murphy let his head fall back as he howled with laughter. Anora stopped to look at him, raising an eyebrow as she did. Murphy was laughing quite loudly, and she had never been that funny. She threw a look at where she had last seen Clarke and Spacewalker. They had also stopped and were watching Murphy with the same look she was.

"Everything okay up there?" called Wells from behind them, which made Murphy stop laughing.

"We're fine!" he called back. A sour look passed across his face, and he took to glaring at the trees. If she had to guess, she would say Murphy wasn't overly fond of Wells. But he would have to get over it, she thought, as she pulled Murphy along by the arm. They were trying to find Jasper. If they were going to find him in one piece, they couldn't stop to laugh every five seconds.

Murphy started walking normally again, and Anora let go of his arm. She noticed Clarke and Spacewalked had done the same, and were walking further ahead of them.

"Hey, Murphy?" she asked, as she watched Spacewalker. He was walking right behind Clarke. Not seeing where he was going, he was just staring at the back of her head, following her blindly.

Murphy looked over at Anora in surprise. "Yeah?"

"Why do they call him 'Spacewalker'?" she asked, pointing at him.

Murphy grinned. "Oh, come on! You don't know?"

Anora couldn't do anything but shake her head. She didn't know anything about Spacewalker, she realized.

"What's his real name?"

Murphy laughed once more. He cleared his throat loudly, as if he was about to start with a'once upon a time', or act out a scene of some sort. She couldn't help but be amused by his antics, even if she felt guilty about it. Murphy was not a very nice guy, she knew that. He was violent and reckless. But for some reason he didn't seem to want to get on her bad side right at that moment, and Anora was smarter than to get on his.

"Apparently, Finn Collins was arrested because he decided to take a stroll into space. Wasted three months worth of oxygen. How did you not know about that?"

"Solitary confinement?"

"Nice try." Murphy smirked. "He was arrested before you were."

Anora huffed a little. "What's the point of being locked up for a year if you can't even use it as an excuse for being clueless?"

Murphy chuckled again. He ran ahead a few paces, before turning around and walking backwards through the forest.

"You're going to kill yourself that way," she told him simply.

"I was just about to tell you that you're not as bad as I thought, Kane." He stopped in his tracks, and pouted. Anora couldn't react in time, and she walked right into him, almost sending him to the ground. She couldn't help but laugh.

"You're right. I'm not that bad, I'm the worst," she joked. Murphy grinned at her once again, before his gaze shifted to her right to look at something behind her. His smile disappeared, and he ran the back of his hand under his nose. Anora turned around to see Wells and Bellamy having caught up with them. Bellamy was glaring at Murphy with a clenched jaw. Murphy looked down at his feet, refusing to meet his eyes.

"You too seem to be getting along," said Wells as he folded his arms across his chest. He narrowed his eyes at Anora.

"Yes, heavens forbid someone _doesn't_ get in a knife fight with Murphy."

She rolled her eyes, turned around and kept walking. Wells needed to get over himself.

* * *

They should have split up again after that, she knew that. But Bellamy seemed to be in such a foul mood, she didn't want to risk him killing anyone. He kept a close eye on Wells, though she couldn't figure out why. They had already gotten what they wanted from Wells. His wristband was gone, the Ark thought he was dead. His father believed he was dead. She felt a pang of pain in her gut at the thought.

Whenever he wasn't watching Wells' every step, Bellamy was glaring at Murphy. She overheard one of their conversations. They had fallen a little behind once again, thinking they were out of earshot.

"Stay away from her."

"Why?" Murphy asked. "I thought we were supposed to get her on our side."

"She already chose a side - Clarke's. That means if we want her wristband, we're gonna have to stop being nice about it. So drop the act."

Bellamy turned away from Murphy, and picked up his pace to catch up again. She didn't realize she had chosen a side, but she understood how Bellamy believed that to be the case. After all, she had spoken against him in public. She was on the side of doing the right thing. They had to make sure as many people as possible survived, both on the Ark and the ground. If that was Clarke's side, then she supposed he was right. But she wasn't entirely sure it was.

Before Bellamy managed to catch up with them, Wells pulled her in front of him. As far as she could tell, the action went unseen by Bellamy, because he said nothing about it. She glanced back at Wells, who nodded knowingly at her. Giving him a small smile in thanks, she set off through the trees. They walked in silence for a while, until Anora heard something.

"Do you hear that?" she asked Wells.

"Hear what?" called Murphy from the back. She shushed him, and turned her ear in the direction of the sound. It sounded like sweet clatter in the distance. Without hesitating, she giggled and took off towards the sound.

"Hey, wait!" one of the boys called, but she wasn't paying attention, and couldn't tell which one. She ran through the trees, jumping over a few broken branches as she did. Behind her, she could hear the sound of the boys chasing her. The further she ran, the more the clattering sound turned into a burbling. She didn't stop running until she reached a tiny downward slope. From the edge of the slope, she saw a river, with clear, rushing water slithering through the forest.

"Find water," she whispered. "Check."

The boys had barely caught up with her when she found herself climbing down the small slope to reach the pebbled shore. She reached the edge of the river and sank to her knees, feeling the waves of the river soaking her jeans. Ignoring her wet clothes, she dug her hands in the ice-cold stream, she folded her hands to form a cup, and brought the water to her her mouth to take a sip. It was sweet and pure on her tongue, nothing like the metallic taste the water had on the Ark. She made sure to take another sip, knowing that she hadn't had anything to drink in a long time.

Beside her, Bellamy fell to his knees and did the same, but quickly got back up again. He was frowning as she looked up at him, and she knew exactly what he was thinking.

"It's too far away from the camp," she said, and he nodded in agreement. She rose to her feet, looking over at Wells, who was also frowning. Behind him, Murphy had waded into the river, so the water reached his knees, and looked to be washing his face. He didn't seem concerned at all.

"I'll have someone come out here tomorrow," said Bellamy. "They can follow the river to see if it leads closer to camp somewhere."

"Good idea. It looks as if it might run closer to camp further upstream," Wells agreed. They might have planned some more, if Clarke hadn't called out to them.

"Anora, Bellamy? Where are you guys? We found something!"

The four of them followed the river only a about a hundred feet to a small waterfall. Down by the shore, they saw Spacewalker and Clarke bending over to study something on the ground.

"Clarke, up here!" called Wells, and the two turned around to look up at them. Clarke was holding something in her hand, but Anora couldn't tell what it was until she held up it for them to see. She felt a sharp pain in her chest as she recognized it. They had found Jasper's goggles.

* * *

The six of them decided to follow the river. Spacewalker did most of the tracking, the rest just followed him. Anora trailed behind the others, not feeling up to contributing to the banter between the boys. Finding Jasper was her priority, not fighting about Spacewalker's tracking.

"Hey, how do we know this is the right way?" asked Murphy, clearly fed up with walking through the forest. Just a few minutes ago, he had tried suggesting they head back, but Clarke had shut him down immediately.

"We don't," said Bellamy decisively. "Spacewalker thinks he's a tracker."

"It's called cutting sign," said Wells, shaking his head a little at the two. "Fourth year Earth Skills. He's good."

"You want to keep it down, or should I paint a target on your backs?" Spacewalker told the others, but his attention soon shifted to a bush near the riverbank. He walked over with Clarke, lifting one of the twigs of the bush. It looked as if it had been broken off by force. Spacewalker crouched down to examine the ground. He shot Clarke a worried look, which she returned.

"What is it?" asked Anora, realizing they had found something.

"See," said Bellamy beside her, turning to Wells. "You're invisible."

Anora looked over at them, noticing Bellamy's smug look and Wells' angry frown. Wells turned his head to stare at Clarke, like he always did. But Clarke was busy, gazing into Spacewalker's eyes, whose attention was on her as well. The worry on Clarke's face that had been ever present since they left camp was almost completely gone.

Was this what was up between Clarke and Wells? Ever since they had gotten to the ground, they had been acting strangely. Clarke seemed to avoid Wells, and most of the time, he let her do as she wanted. But their problem couldn't be as simple as a little jealousy, could it?

Anora had always had the feeling that Wells was in love with Clarke, and though Clarke cared for him as well, perhaps not in quite the same way. But until now, she had never seen Clarke show any kind of romantic interest in another person. She had always assumed Clarke would end up with Wells eventually. If Clarke was really crushing on Spacewalker like she appeared to be, it wouldn't be easy on Wells.

A strangled moan sounded through the forest, interrupting her from her thoughts. Anora felt her heart beat faster. It had to be Jasper.

"What the hell was that?" asked Murphy. Clarke and Spacewalker looked at each other, before getting to their feet.

"Now would be a good time to take out that gun," said Clarke. Spacewalker lead the group back into the green of the trees, away from the river in the direction of the moan. They reached a clearing after walking not even a minute. It looked as if it had been made by humans. The grass was wild, but appeared trampled. Several young trees had been cut down. In the middle of the clearing a lone tree, covered with old, green moss was left. It was old, and the thick branches had been sawed off, with no new twigs growing on them. The tree was dead.

Jasper's bloody body was tied to the thick tree trunk. His arms were tied around a branch over his head, but his feet hang free. Though not as loudly as before, he was moaning as they entered the clearing. He seemed to be at the edge of unconsciousness.

"Jasper! Oh, my god," said Clarke and moved towards him.

"Clarke, be careful!"

Clarke didn't seem to listen to Spacewalker's warning, and neither did Anora. She pushed past him to help Clarke get to Jasper. She was walking faster to get up to Clarke's side, and was almost there when she heard Clarke's yell. In the corner of her eye she saw a flick of blonde hair disappearing out of her vision. She tried to turn around to stop in time, but felt one foot fall from underneath her, and she slipped.

The ground smashed into her ribcage, knocking the air out of her lungs. The weight of her lower body betrayed her, and she was slipping into the pit that had appeared out of nowhere. She frantically grasped after grass to keep from falling in the pit completely, managing to wrap her left hand around an old root from the tree. It held her up, but she could tell it wouldn't last long. The root was old and rotten. She was too scared to try to pull herself up, fearing that the it wouldn't hold the extra weight.

"Pull her up!"

She saw Spacewalker, Wells and Murphy running towards them. Spacewalker was yelling at Bellamy, who she only now noticed was right beside her.

Where had he come from?

He was leaning down into the pit, with one hand wrapped tightly around Clarke's wrist, right above her wristband. His eyes were glued to it, and Anora saw Clarke looking worriedly at her wristband, and back up to Bellamy.

"Bellamy," she said softly. His head snapped to his right at the sound of Anora's voice. His brown eyes met hers. She saw a flash of uncertainty, before they softened slightly, and then steeled themselves. He turned back to face Clarke, and started pulling her up just as Anora felt a hand on her arm as well.

She turned to face Spacewalker, who nodded at her as a way of telling her to trust him. Beside them, Wells and Murphy had started helping Bellamy. Finn arm grabbed a hold of her left wrist. Her right hand, which had been wrapped around a handful of yellow grass, wrapped around his left. With another nod, he started to pull her up. She tried to help him by pushing at the pit wall with her feet. He let go of her left arm, tightening his old on her right hand. She felt him grab the back of her jacket, and pull harder, till she had enough ground under her to crawl out and collapse on the ground.

It wasn't until then that she felt how hard her heart was beating, nor had she noticed how her hands shook. She hadn't even realized when she started breathing again after falling on her chest. Finn squeezed her hand, trying to calm her down and to keep her from shaking. She looked up at him, seeing him smile at her. He was telling her she was okay.

"So," she said, trying to keep her voice from shaking as well. "Were you always in the rescuing business, or is this a recent development?"

Finn chuckled, but didn't answer. Anora turned to her right to see that Clarke had also gotten out of the pit and was already brushing the dirt of her clothes.

"Are you okay?" Finn asked Clarke. Clarke gave several short nods, whispering a small 'yeah'. With his help she got to her feet, turning towards the tree again.

"Jasper," said Anora softly, just as she remembered why she had fallen in the first place. She got to her feet as well, turning around to see her friend still hanging in the tree. He was now unconscious, she was sure of it. Perhaps that was a blessing, given his wounds.

"We need to get him down," said Clarke.

"I'll climb up there and cut the vines," Finn replied, walking towards the tree.

"Yeah, I'm with you."

Wells moved to join him, but Finn turned around and shook his head.

"No, stay with Clarke. And watch him."

Finn shot a look at Bellamy, whose eyes narrowed at the comment. Calling for Murphy too help instead, the two started climbing the tree.

"There's a poultice on his wound," said Clarke, and Anora looked closer at Jasper. On his chest, presumably where he was stabbed by the spear, was something green.

"A poultice? What's that?" she asked Clarke, but it was Wells who answered.

"Medicine. Why would they save his life just to string him up as live bait?"

"Maybe what they're trying to catch likes its dinner to be breathing," said Bellamy.

"Maybe what they're trying to catch is us," Finn corrected.

Anora couldn't help but groan. "It's really difficult to be optimistic down here."

* * *

They were taking too long, she thought. She couldn't stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong while Murphy fumbled with his knife. The grounders could come at any moment. They could be stabbed and strung up themselves. Jasper could die from loss of blood, shock, or even a seizure. She did not imagine a jaguar attack, so naturally, that was what happened.

While they were waiting to get Jasper down, they heard a low growl coming from the trees.

Murphy stopped cutting the vines to look. "What the hell was that?"

"Grounders?" Bellamy suggested, but didn't look sure. Clarke moved closer to Anora, so they were side by side. Their shoulders were touching, which Anora felt thankful for. She never claimed to be very brave, and Clarke's presence calmed her, if only a little. Her heart was racing faster with every second, and she could feel the palms of her hands grow clammy.

Clarke was staring at a space between two trees. With the sound of a few twigs breaking, a four-legged animal with black fur appeared. She recognized the it from one of their predatory animals lectures in her Earth Skills class. The jaguar crouched down for a moment, and broke into a run towards them.

"Bellamy, gun!" called Clarke. Bellamy reached back frantically, trying to get a hold of his gun, but he came up empty handed. Had he lost it?

Anora heard gunshots coming from her other side. Confused she turned to see Wells pointing a gun at the large feline, shooting several rounds at it. He stepped in front of Clarke and Anora, trying to shield Clarke from the animal and fired once again. The jaguar, which had been headed for Bellamy, was hit. As a reaction to the bullet, it ran into some shrubbery, hiding it from their sight could still hear it move frantically. Out of nowhere, it leaped out of the shrubbery to attack Bellamy. Wells shot at it while it was in the air. The jaguar was hit, and fell hard to the ground. Wells kept firing at it, not realizing that his gun was out of bullets. Once he realized the jaguar was dead, he dropped the gun in shock.

Bellamy, who was breathing heavily due to the adrenaline pumping, turned to Wells.

"Now she sees you," he said. Wells couldn't help but look back at Clarke, who was staring at him in shock.

"So," said Anora. "Does anyone know what jaguar tastes like?"

* * *

Carrying a 17 year old boy and the body of a fully grown jaguar back to camp wasn't exactly the highlight of Anora's day. Then again, when she thought about it, nothing had been the highlight of her day so far. The day had sucked. She was almost happy to see the sun setting as they were getting closer to camp. Who would have thought that after a year in confinement, she would miss it once she got her freedom. At least while she was imprisoned, she didn't have to worry about her friends being stabbed or eaten by wild animals. And she was definitely not sorry when they entered the camp after the sun set.

Finn and Wells carried Jasper into the dropship, and Anora was about to follow them when Bellamy called her name.

"Anora! Hold up!"

He and Murphy dropped the parachute with the jaguar wrapped inside on the ground, opening up for the crowd that had gathered to see.

"Who's hungry?" he called out, and the crowd cheered. She started to grow agitated. Her friend was hurt, and Bellamy was playing to the crowd instead of telling her why he called for her. She walked right up to Bellamy and stared up at him.

"What is it?"

Bellamy turned away from the crowd to look at Anora. His eyes widened slightly in surprise at seeing her so close to him, and he took a small step back.

"You worked in the kitchens. Think you can do something with this?" he asked, pointing at the dead feline.

Anora didn't want to. She knew it was selfish, but she wanted help Jasper. Logically, she knew she would probably only get in Clarke's way as she did her best to help him. And Clarke would get whatever help she needed from Monty, Finn and Wells. Even so, she wanted to help her friend, not Bellamy.

And how would she go about dressing a jaguar, anyway? The delinquents wouldn't want cat hair in their food, after all. She read about preparing a mountain lion once, and she supposed it couldn't be all that different. Her mother had all sorts of strange books on food preparation. Many of them contained tips on how to survive on the ground. After moving to Alpha Station, she worked to collect and preserve information on Earth Skills for the Go-Sci library. Her work was supposed to help prepare the generation that would eventually make it to the ground. The books on Earth Skills cooking had been of her own private collection, and when she passed, they were left to Anora.

"String it up in that tree over there," she said to Bellamy, pointing at one of the trees near the big fire. She would need plenty of light for this to work.

"And get me the sharpest knife you have."

* * *

"I can't believe you just did that," said Roma, awe coloring her voice. "You just ripped out the entrails with your bare hands like they were nothing, while the boys just stood there and watched. While _Bellamy_ just stood there and watched!"

"Excuse me, Roma!" said Drew in mock offence. "I was the one who skinned the kitty. I think I deserve some credit."

Roma scoffed. "Oh, please. You only pulled the skin away because she wasn't strong enough to do it herself."

"Not my fault she's weak," Drew joked again.

"Hey!" said Nathan, jumping to her defense. "I'd like to see you skin a jaguar after a year in solitary!"

"Shut up, Miller!"

"Settle down, children," said Anora. "Drew's right. What little strength I used to have is pretty much gone now. I'm practically as frail as a butterfly these days."

"Still badass, though," Nathan grumbled. He couldn't hold his composure very long, and let a smile break through. Drew laughed and threw a handful of dirt at him, while Roma rolled her eyes at them. Anora felt herself relax at their banter, and lay down on the ground, closing her eyes.

"You tell 'em, Nate," she murmured. The days activities had taken a lot out of her, and she decided she could nap until the food was ready. She had given instructions on how to cook the meat to Bellamy. He would pass them on to whoever ended up doing the actual cooking. It wasn't likely to be the king himself.

They left her alone for a little while, leaving her to lie on the ground, listening to her friends' chatter. But suddenly, their chatter died, just as she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. They stopped just at her head.

"Hi, Bellamy!" said Roma, with a new edge to her voice that Anora hadn't heard before.

"Is she asleep?" said Bellamy's voice, probably asking Roma. Anora heard a small scuffle. The sound of her friends shrugging, perhaps? She felt like running away, hiding in the dropship or somewhere he couldn't find her. Why did he always want something?

"She's probably just ignoring you," said Drew.

"'Nora? You awake?" asked Nathan, his voice gentle, careful not to wake her if she was indeed asleep. Anora sat up in her original position, opening her eyes. She turned around to see Bellamy right behind her.

"What do you want this time?" she said simply. It was heard to tell in the dim light, but a small flinch crossed his face. Perhaps it was only a shadow from the fire.

"I just..." He looked at loss for words, and his eyes darted from her, to Nathan, Drew and Roma, and finally back to her again. After a few seconds of thinking, his face steeled itself again.

"Do you want this?"

His words were harsher than before. He held out a bundle for her to take, which she hadn't noticed before. It was the black jaguar pelt. He threw it at her lap, and she let her hands dig into the short, but soft, fur.

"Thanks," she said, looking up at him, and he nodded.

"You earned it," he said, before pointing at the fire where people were gathering. "The meat's ready for those without wristbands."

She felt her jaw drop. What a selfish jerk.

"Are you kidding me?" she said, getting to her feet. Beside her, Roma and the boys did the same. "Are you really telling me, after I did all the work, you're gonna let me go hungry?"

Bellamy crossed his arms over his chest, and took a step closer to her.

"All you have to do is take it off," he said, smirking down at her. The innuendo was not lost on her, but she didn't have the strength to take offense or even argue with Bellamy.

"You know, because they contain dangerous pathogens, they say not to eat carnivores that aren't cooked well enough." Anora picked up her new jaguar pelt, and her jacket. She turned to Bellamy. "I hope yours is medium rare."

Anora turned around on her heel, and walked off in the direction of her tent.

* * *

 **As always, thank you for reading, and for the follows, faves and reviews! So, the next chapter will be the longest one so far. I'm thinking of splitting it in two so I can update sooner. What do you guys think? Let me know!**


	7. Chapter 7: Healing

**Disclaimer: I do not own the 100 or any of its characters. I have not read the books, so this story is based on the show.**

* * *

Anora woke to the sound of loud groaning coming from the dropship. Without opening her eyes, she turned in the makeshift bed Nathan had made the day before, and buried her face in the soft jaguar pelt. She let out a little groan of her own, feeling the ache of sleep leaving her body unwillingly. Jasper moaned in pain once again this time louder than before.

"There's no way he's in that much pain!"

Anora turned around in her bed to see Nathan lying next to her in his own makeshift bed, his hand covering his eyes to keep the light out. Without a pelt of his own, he was lying directly on the seatbelts he stretched across the bed frame in a zig-zag pattern, but he seemed comfortable enough.

"Why don't I stab you in the chest with a spear and we'll find out?" she said, her voice playful but her meaning clear.

"He's been like this all night," Nathan explained. He removed his hand from his face, and turned to face her. The bed frame he made from logs and wire creaked a little, but didn't give. "I can't believe you slept through it."

Anora shrugged. "At least it's not completely silent out there. I kind of miss the machine hum."

Nathan grunted in response, and sat up to put his shoes back on, ignoring her as he did. Anora sighed and did the same.

"So what are your plans for the day?" she asked him as she laced up her boots, but he only shrugged. Trying not to roll her eyes at him, she stood up to put her jacket on. She didn't like it when Nathan was in a bad mood. He had a tendency to make everyone around him feel bad when he did.

With the improvements that Nathan made to the tent, she could stand upright without bumping her head on the canvas. Though the material of the parachute didn't do any harm, it did make her hair electric. She didn't want to give everyone she touched an electric shock.

"I'm gonna check on Jasper, see if Clarke needs any help."

Nathan nodded. "Bellamy said something about needing people to go hunting. I think I'll join them."

"Oh," said Anora, feeling a little disappointed. "You're helping Bellamy, now?"

"I don't know, Anora," he said, running a hand over his face and letting out a sigh. "But I'm hungry, and following Bellamy is our best bet on surviving down here. And maybe he lets me keep my wristband if I help him."

"You think so?" she said, her skepticism plainly written on her face.

Nathan scowled. "It's a much better idea than saying lame stuff like 'I wish you choke on your food', or whatever you said last night."

Nathan stalked out of the tent without another word, leaving Anora behind to ponder his words.

* * *

Anora climbed up the ladder, and crawled out of the hatch on the third level. The level was dark, with only enough light to see the outlines of Clarke, Monty and Jasper.

Jasper didn't look good at all. He was still groaning, though not at loud as before, and breathing heavily. His skin was white as a sheet of paper. Clarke held his head towards a cup of water, but he didn't seem to be able to ingest any of it. The water spilled over his lips and down his naked chest, where the green poultice covered his wound.

"How's he doing?" she asked Clarke, as she approached them. Clarke let out a heavy sigh and shook her head.

"There's been no change. I don't know how to help him," she said. "Without any real medical supplies, I don't know what to do."

Anora nodded. Jasper was probably not going to make it, was what she was telling her. They were only kids, after all. How were they supposed to patch up someone who had gotten stabbed by a spear?

"Clarke," she said softly. "What's going on between you and Wells?"

Clarke looked hurt, before she steeled herself into a look of anger.

"It's nothing," she said, as she sat up into a rigid position.

"It's not nothing. You've been avoiding him. Something happened. Is this about Finn?"

"Even if something happened, it wouldn't be any of your business," said Clarke sharply, her eyes filled with ice.

Anora flinched a little, but nodded. "Sorry. Being nosy, I guess," she mumbled under her breath, lowering her gaze back to Jasper. She smoothed his hair, and ran the palm of her hand across his forehead. She felt the heat under her fingers, and turned to Clarke.

"He's burning up."

Clarke looked up from her hands to Anora, and then to Jasper. "Right," she said, before wetting a cloth in a basin of water. She wrung the cloth before placing it on Jasper's forehead. The two girls fell into a silence. The only sound was the groaning coming from Jasper, and of Monty tampering with one of the wristbands. After a few minutes, the sound of Anora's stomach growling was heard. Clarke raised an eyebrow at her.

"Wow," said Monty. Anora giggled a little, and looked back at him.

"Shut up," she said. "We're all hungry."

Clarke frowned. "Didn't you eat last night?"

"No," said Anora. "The restaurant was only open for those without wristbands, remember?"

She held up her arm for Clarke to see, and Clarke nodded, doing the same with hers.

"You should have found us. Finn managed to sneak some of it away, we'd have shared with you."

Monty groaned behind her, but Anora only shrugged.

"I was thinking of heading out into the woods again to find something edible," she said. "Did you eat last night, Monty?"

Monty shook his head. "I didn't even know about the food, I stayed up here with Jasper."

"I'll bring something back for you, then."

Monty gave her a sad smile. "Thanks."

Anora didn't return until an hour later, with Wells' makeshift pack full of wild asparagus and some blackberries. The asparagus were thinner than the ones grown on the ark, and much more bitter, but at least they were edible. She came across the blackberry bush on her way back, and had managed to return with scrapes covering both her hands and arms. In her excitement at seeing __berries s__ he had forgotten all about the thorns.

She stuck her one of her cut up fingers in her mouth, trying to ease the bleeding. The taste of blood swept across her tongue, hard and metallic. To counter it, she ate one of the sweet berries. They were perfectly ripe. She wondered when the last time she had tasted something so sweet was. The berries grown on the Ark were only used to make jam, and it didn't have the same fresh taste as these wild ones did.

Thinking of the Ark dampened her mood. She though of Thomas. What was he doing, now that there were no prisoners to feed? Was he given patrol duty? Did the guards know about the failing life support? Did he know she was alive? Her father knew, she was sure of that. But it wasn't like Thomas could just walk up to him and ask whether his daughter was still alive. Not without an explanation at least. And then, what would he say?

"Oh, sorry, I just really like your daughter's hair."

Anora shook her head in amusement, picturing her father's reaction in her mind. His slack jaw, and his dark eyes wide in surprise.

They would make it, she decided, as she walked back to camp. No matter what she would have to do, they would make it back to the ground. Her father, her grandmother, Nathan's parents, and Thomas. She would do whatever it took to convince Bellamy to spare them, and prayed it was not too late.

* * *

Anora climbed the ladder once more. She saw that Finn had joined Monty and Clarke on the third level. He was leaning against the dropship wall near Monty, one leg propped up and his arm resting on his knee.

"Morning," he said, as Anora joined them. Monty looked up at her expectantly, and she smiled a little.

"I found plenty of asparagus, but they're bitter, so you might not even want them. And I found some blackberries."

Monty didn't listen, only grabbed a handful of asparagus as soon as she emptied the pack.

"Clarke, you hungry?"

Clarke shook her head, too busy inspecting the poultice on Jasper's chest. "I'm not hungry. Besides, you need it more."

"Finn?" Anora offered, holding up an asparagus at him. He took it, but refused any more.

"Clarke's right. You should eat."

Anora nodded, and they fell silent once again. It was difficult to make smalltalk when Jasper was in the room, groaning in pain once every ten seconds. She couldn't blame him. He was feverish, in pain, and not even conscious. She just wished she could do something for him, help him somehow. She found herself chewing on the asparagus more forcefully than needed. Though it eased the pangs of hunger, it still tasted terrible.

If Bellamy had just behaved like an actual leader. If he'd had their best interests at heart, perhaps they wouldn't be in this situation. She certainly wouldn't be this hungry, she would have eaten something the night before. Nobody would have had to remove their wristbands. And they would have all gone to Mount Weather to find supplies.

And perhaps all of them would have been attacked by grounders. Perhaps all of them would have been dead.

"I'm gonna remove the poultice to see if I can find out what they used on it," said Clarke, out of nowhere. Anora got to her feet and walked over to Clarke in the middle of the room, sitting back down next to Jasper.

"You sure about this?" she asked carefully. Clarke knew better than her on this, she was aware of that, but Clarke was also stubborn. Once she got an idea into her head, she went for it, without thought to the consequences.

"If we want to help him, we need to know what the grounders did to keep him alive. If we can find some of the same plants they used, maybe we can save him."

Anora nodded. "But won't removing the poultice make him worse?"

Clarke hesitated. "I don't know," she said, but recovered from her hesitation. "But this is our best chance. If we do nothing, he's going to die."

Anora took a deep breath, but nodded. She watched as Clarke brought a knife to the poultice, slipping it under the edge of it all the way around. Clarke put the knife away, and lifted the poultice off his wound.

"The grounders cauterized his wound," she said, as she inspected it. "It saved his life."

Anora could see the slightly blackened flesh on Jasper's chest, and she knew what Clarke was talking about. The grounders had burned the flesh to stop the bleeding. But why?

"They saved his life so they could string him up for live bait," said Finn, stepping closer to them. "Garden of Eden this ain't."

Clarke dabbed a cloth on the wound, trying to clean it. "This is infected," she said, but paused. "He could be septic. Any progress on using the wristbands to contact the Ark?"

Clarke turned to Monty, who stared at Jasper, not replying.

"Monty!" she said, getting his attention.

"That would be a firm no."

Clarke sighed. "My mother would know what to do."

"Hey," said Anora, and grabbed Clarke's arm. Clarke her head to look Anora in the eyes. "You'll figure this out," Anora assured her. Clarke's face softened, and she looked as if she would cry until Wells interrupted them.

"How's he doing?" he asked, crouching down next to Clarke, who snapped at him.

"How does it look like he's doing, Wells?" she said, refusing to even look at him. Anora almost jumped in surprise. She'd seen Clarke angry before, but never with Wells.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help," said Wells in his defense. Though Anora liked Clarke much better than him lately, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He had done as much as anyone else in the camp to keep them all alive, and had gotten nothing in return. Bellamy was revered as their leader, everyone looked up to him, with only a few exceptions. Though few actually liked Clarke, they all respected her. Anora herself hadn't had any bad experiences with anybody. Most people kept away from her, because of her father, she assumed, but nobody had dared to treat her badly. Perhaps in fear that she might not want to feed them anymore. Even Finn was well liked in the camp, and he was seen as a bit of a rebel.

But nobody respected Wells. Nobody thanked him for gathering food the first day, or for being the one to kill the jaguar. The whole camp seemed to hate him, even his best friend.

"Clarke," she said, watching Clarke trying to keep her anger together. "How can we help you?"

Clarke nodded, took a deep breath and closed her eyes to think clearly. She opened them and fixated her gaze on Jasper's wound.

"Alright, you want to help?" she said. "Hold him down."

Wells grabbed a hold of one of Jasper's legs, while Finn moved to hold down the other. Anora positioned herself at Jasper's shoulders, pushing them down. Clarke grabbed the knife again and sterilized it in the small fire they had going up there.

"I'm not going to like this, am I?"

Clarke brought the knife to Jasper's chest. Anora looked away, but kept her hands steady on Jasper's shoulders. He cried out in pain loudly, with more force than before. With him writhing around in pain, she struggled to keep him down, but was doing a better job than Wells. Jasper kicked out at him, and his Wells in the gut. Wells let out a low groan of pain, but threw himself on Jasper's feet again, putting all his weight over him.

"Hold him still!" ordered Clarke. "I need to cut away the infected flesh."

As she said this, Jasper let out a single sob. His eyes rolled back and his body relaxed, as he passed out due to the pain. Clarke put a finger on his neck to feel her pulse, when Octavia burst through the hatch.

"Stop it! You're killing him," she said, sitting down next to Clarke by Jasper's head.

"She's trying to save his life," Finn assured her.

"She can't," said a low voice. Anora looked up to see Bellamy following Octavia through the hatch. Monty threw him a cold look, and Wells got to his feet once again to challenge him. Anora found the wet cloth that Clarke had used earlier, and wiped Jasper's forehead, face and neck free from sweat. Let the boys argue amongst themselves. Jasper still felt too hot with his high fever, and that was her concern.

"Back off," said Wells coldly.

"We didn't drag him through miles of woods just to let him die," said Clarke, supporting Wells for the first time in a while.

"Kid's a goner. If you can't see that you're deluded. He's making people crazy!"

"Sorry if Jasper is an inconvenience to you," she replied harshly, "but this isn't the Ark. Down here every life matters."

"Take a look at him," said Bellamy, his voice grating the words. "He's a lost cause."

"Not to us," said Anora suddenly, looking up at him for the first time since he entered the room. "He's our friend. You're expecting us to let our friend die. How could you ask that of us?"

Bellamy frowned, but his words had made an impression on Octavia who was on the verge of tears.

"Octavia," said Clarke gently. "I've spent my whole life watching my mother heal people. If I say there's hope, there's hope."

"This isn't about hope, it's about guts. You don't have the guts to make the hard choices. I do. He's been like this for 3 days." Bellamy paused, and looked Anora in the eye. "I'm not asking you to do anything. If he's not better by tomorrow, I'll kill him myself."

Bellamy turned around, and walked to the ladder, before turning back towards Octavia.

"Octavia, let's go."

From the corner of her eye, Anora saw Octavia tense up. She took a deep breath, before saying, "I'm staying here."

Bellamy grabbed the ladder and climbed down without his sister. Anora gave Octavia a look of gratefulness. She had defied her brother, no matter how small the gesture was, she'd shown him that she was on their side. Perhaps she could convince her brother to spare Jasper.

"Power hungry, self-serving jackass," said Monty, watching the hatch where Bellamy had disappeared. "He doesn't care about anyone but himself. No offense."

He shot a look at Octavia, but she just shrugged in agreement.

"Yeah, Bellamy is all that," said Finn with a sigh. "But he also happens to be right."

Clarke stared at Finn in disappointment for a second. Anora felt her stomach twist at the words, wishing she could believe otherwise. Bellamy was right. Jasper was weak, in pain and no one seemed to have a clue on how to help him. Yet letting him die without doing their best to save him, was non-negotiable.

"I'm gonna go talk to your brother, see if I can change his mind."

Octavia gave Anora a look of disbelief. "How?"

"I have no idea."

* * *

Bellamy was at the outskirts of the camp. Along with Nathan, Atom, Jones and two other kids she didn't know the name of, a boy and a girl. They was gearing up to leave as Anora approached them, facing the woods. She cleared her throat to announce her presence. The six of them all snapped to attention and turned to face her. Surprise crossed Nathan's face, whereas Jones and the other kid looked curious. Bellamy was carrying the steeled mask she had gotten so acquainted with.

"Can I talk to you?" she said, looking Bellamy in the eye. A look of confusion swept across his face, but he nodded. With a signal to the guys to wait, he walked a little ways away, Anora following him. They weren't quite out of earshot, so they kept their voices low.

"If you're here about Jasper-"

"I am."

Bellamy looked back and forth between the group waiting for him and Anora. He brought a hand up to rub his temples, and let out a heavy breath. Anora stepped closer to him, placing heir weight on the balls of her feet, looking up at him.

"If you really believe he's not going to make it, why not let us try to save him? What harm does it do?"

"He's in pain," he said, his brow furrowing.

"Jasper wouldn't want us to give up on him, that's not who he is."

"Who he is?" he said skeptically. "He's the dying kid driving people crazy. I'm trying to do the best for the camp, and Jasper constantly reminding people of the threat out there is bad for morale."

Anora nodded. "I get that! But giving up on one of __us__ is not going to help morale either. What happens when someone else gets hurt? We need to take care of our own! You need everyone to believe you have their backs. Gain their trust by doing the right thing, even if there's an easier way out."

He stared down at her, his eyes wide, dark and rich, and so similar to her own. They were almost almost pulling her in. They both blinked at the same time, and Bellamy seemed to snap out of his thoughts. He took a step back, and ran a hand over his face.

"You should come with us," he said, ignoring what she had just said.

"Huh?"

"Hunting," he explained, his voice louder than before. It caught the attention of the rest of his group. "You should learn how."

"Why?" she asked, still confused, but didn't get an answer as the four other guys walked over to them.

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Nathan carefully, but Bellamy frowned.

"We're gonna need someone who knows where whatever animal we find is vulnerable."

"She's unarmed," Nathan explained, looking back and forth between his newfound leader and best friend. Bellamy grabbed her arm, and placed something cold in her hand. She looked down to see the glint of metal, and a piece of red parachute wrapped around with blue wire in her hand.

"Now she's not," said Bellamy simply, before walking towards the woods. "Let's go."

* * *

 **Sorry it's been a while guys, school has been really busy lately. And now that exams are coming up, I'm procrastinating by being productive in every single part of my life that has nothing to do with school. I decided to split this chapter in two, so I've got the next chapter almost ready to go. I just need to edit it. I expect it will be done by the end of next week.**

 **To those of you who have been sweet enough to leave reviews in my absence, thank you so much! And also, thank you for the follows and the favorites. You guys are super nice!**


	8. Chapter 8: The Hunted

**Disclaimer: I do not own the 100 or any of its characters. I have not read the books, so this story is based on the show.**

* * *

They walked for about a mile before Bellamy told them all to be quiet to keep from alarming any potential prey. At a steady pace, the group walked through the trees, fanned out in formation to cover the most ground. Anora found herself walking at the edge of the formation, branching out a little to cover more ground.

"Anora," Bellamy whispered at one point, getting her attention. She turned to him, and saw him beckon her over. "Keep close."

She did keep close after that, walking only a few feet away from him. The others were spread much further apart, but they were more armed than she was. Both Nathan and Jones carried long spears, made from wood and dropship metal, in addition to their knives. Anora's borrowed knife had a blunt blade and a loose handle. She highly doubted she would be killing anything anytime soon.

A few seconds later, Bellamy held up his hand to his mouth, placing his index finger on his lips. He raised his other hand in the air, clenching the handle of his ax in his fist. The others stopped and looked to Bellamy. The woods fell silent for a second, before they heard a low grunting sound coming from behind some of the trees.

Carefully, Bellamy motioned for the others to start moving again. With a pace slower than before, the group walked towards the trees. Trying to keep as silent as possible, Anora kept her gaze to the ground, watching her steps. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bellamy move forward, and she followed him closely.

After walking about thirty feet, Bellamy held out his arm to stop her, his hand hitting her in her chest. Turning to him, she saw him smirking a little. He had a mischievous look in his eyes, as he motioned her to look ahead.

Perhaps only fifty feet away from them was a four legged, dark furred animal sniffing the ground with its flat snout. It made the same grunting sound they had heard earlier. Or was that an oink? She had read about how grounders had domesticated pigs in school. Was this a pig? The description fit perfectly. It had the corkscrew tail, the distinguished snout and the cloven hoofs. Wild pigs were called boars by grounders. How had it survived the radioactivity?

Her question went unanswered. Bellamy motioned for Jones to follow him ahead, and together, the two walked ahead of the rest. Looking over at Nathan, who shrugged, Anora fell inn behind Bellamy. She watched him as he crept up on the animal, focusing on his movement.

"Shh, shh, shh," he told Jones, holding his hand out to signal a stop. He twirled the ax in his hand. "She's mine."

He brought up his arm, preparing to throw the ax at the animal, when a twig snapping was heard right behind Anora. She jumped at the sound, turning halfway toward the shape of a small person. In the nick of time, she noticed Bellamy's ax flying toward them. She ducked, and heard a sharp thud above her.

"Anora!" called Nathan, and she heard the sound of leaves rustling as he rushed towards her. Looking up, with her heart beating in her chest, she saw the ax lodged in a tree right behind where she had been standing. Far away, she heard the boar shriek in panic, as some of the others ran after it. And then Bellamy was there, crouching down right in front of her. His hand touched her arm, which she had brought up to protect her face. Gently, he pulled it away from her face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Are you okay?"

Another hand grabbed her arm, and pulled her to her feet. A little wobbly, she grabbed a hold of it to steady herself. She could feel adrenaline still rushing through her body. Looking up at the owner of the arm she was holding, Nathan's worried frown came into her line of sight.

"I'm fine," she said between heavy breaths. Next to them, Bellamy also got to his feet. His brows were also furrowed in worry. She gave him a reassuring smile.

"I'm just glad you have terrible aim."

Nathan relaxed next to her, and let out a breathy chuckle. Bellamy tensed up even more as he turned to Anora's right.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked the little girl that had appeared behind her. The girl's shoulder were up around her ears as she replied.

"Charlotte."

"I almost killed her," said Bellamy, pointing at Anora. He walked around her, grabbed the ax that had was lodged into the tree, and turned back to Charlotte. "Why aren't you back at camp?"

Charlotte kept her eyes towards the ground as she explained, "well, with the guy who was dying, I just... I couldn't listen anymore."

Anora felt another pang in her chest. The girl was probably one of the youngest out of all the kids that were sent down, probably not even a teenager yet. She wore her hair in braided pigtails, and her narrow frame didn't even reach Anora's shoulders. And here she was, forced to listen to another kid dying from a stab wound.

"There's grounders out here. It's not safe for a little girl," said Atom, who had given up chasing the boar, and returned.

"I'm not little," Charlotte countered, but her frame and meek expression told Anora otherwise. But she had brought her eyes up to meet Atom's, and was looking Bellamy in the eye when he spoke to her.

"Okay, then," he said, a small smile gracing his lips. "But you can't hunt without a weapon."

He pulled a knife from one of his pockets, and Anora watched with wide eyes as he handed it to Charlotte. She took it from him, gave it a quick look, before studying Bellamy. As if checking to see if he was serious.

"Ever killed something before?" he asked. Charlotte shook her head. "Who knows? Maybe you're good at it," he assured her. She gave him a small smile in return.

"You know, Bellamy, your extensive weapons collection is starting to make me nervous," said Anora. She threw him a cheeky grin. His frown was long gone.

"Not to mention his habit of giving out his knives to girls," said Nathan with a smirk. "Let's hope the grounder girls aren't as pretty as you two, or we'll all be doomed."

Charlotte giggled a little, and Nathan picked up his spear from the ground, taking off after Atom and the others. Bellamy motioned for Charlotte to follow him, before giving Anora a pointed look between her and Charlotte. She nodded, hurrying after the girl.

* * *

They hadn't been following the boar for more than ten minutes when the sound of a horn bellowing echoed through the woods. The others looked around to find the source of the sound.

"Grounders?" asked Jones, holding up his spear. Behind him, something yellow filtered through the trees like a fog or gas.

"What's that?" said Nathan, taking a few steps back to avoid it.

Anora walked over to the yellow substance, trying to figure out what it was. She had never seen something like it. It looked exactly like smoke, only yellow. Reaching out her right hand, she touched it. A sharp, burning pain shot through her hand, and she quickly pulled back with a yelp. She stepped back, and looked down at her hand. Searing, red boils and welts covered the back of her hand and fingers.

"Get back!" she called out, and felt an arm pull her away from the fog.

"Run!" shouted Bellamy, and the others started running. Anora turned around to follow them, only she bumped into Charlotte, who had not moved an inch.

"Go, Charlotte!" she yelled, pushing her into a run after the others. The two girls trailed behind the boys, but kept them in sight. After a short while, Charlotte started to slow down, breathing heavily. Anora grabbed her hand with her hurt one, and pulled her ahead. She was only running on adrenaline.

"Come on! There are caves this way!" called Bellamy up ahead. He and Atom slowed a little to let the girls catch up to them, Bellamy taking Charlotte's arm from Anora. Anora passed Atom, who ran after her. She followed Bellamy and Charlotte up a hill, around a few trees. Bellamy pushed the younger girl inside, and waited a moment to make sure Anora got in safely as well.

"Keep going," Anora said. Charlotte kept walking until she reached the inner cave wall. Anora looked back to the entrance, seeing Bellamy looking out into the forest.

"Bellamy," she called softly. He turned and looked back at her with wide eyes. "Where's Atom?"

Bellamy shook his head in reply.

* * *

Hours passed, and the sky grew dark. Charlotte had found a nice place to lie down to sleep, keeping Bellamy and Anora awake with her soft snores. Bellamy kept careful watch over the younger girl, whereas Anora stared out into darkness, trying to keep her mind off the pain in her hand. The red welts across her knuckles had started to burst, and a clear liquid were oozing from them. She touched it carefully with a single fingered, and winced as she felt a stab of pain.

"Let me see," said Bellamy, scooting over to her and holding out his hand. She carefully placed her hand in his, and he gently lifted it up to his face to get a closer look.

"The fog did this?" he asked, his voice thick with worry, as his eyes gazed on the burns.

"Maybe he caught up with the others. Maybe they're all okay."

Bellamy brought his eyes up to meet hers.

"Maybe," he said softly. With his other hand, he grabbed a hold of his water skin. Giving Anora a warning glance, he said, "this might sting."

It did sting, but the cool, soothing water helped ease the pulsing, burning sensation that had kept her attention for hours. She gave him a small smile in thanks, and he nodded, but did not return the smile. For a while, all was silent. He was still sitting close by, and had a hold on her hand. Realizing this, Anora pulled it away from his grasp, not looking at him.

"You must be worried about Miller," he said, his voice gruff. "He's a good kid."

She felt a wave of nausea roll over her. Not one thought on her part had been spared on Nathan since they found the cave. He, Jones and the other kid had been running far ahead of them. According to Bellamy, there were several caves in the terrain. But she hadn't seen them since they started running. She had just assumed that they were okay. What if they hadn't made it to a cave? What if they were outside in the fog, all of their skin burning like her hand?

"Yeah," she said.

"Known him for a long time?"

"Yeah."

Bellamy gave her a pointed look. "What? No story? Miller doesn't exactly come off as a privileged Alpha Station kid."

"You would be surprised," she said, smirking slightly. "His father is David Miller."

"The Chief Guard?" said a shocked Bellamy.

"We met our first year in school. Clarke and I were the only girls on Alpha in our year. I was desperately trying to be her friend, but she wanted nothing to do with me. I remember her always telling me, 'Sorry, Wells needs me,' or 'I have to go find Wells,' whenever I asked her to play with me. They already knew each other because their fathers were best friends."

"What a bitch."

Anora gave a low chuckle, and threw a worried look over at Charlotte. The girl was still fast asleep.

"She was just a kid. I probably came off too strong. Sometimes I did that," Anora smiled at the memory.

"But one day, while Clarke was wobbling across the room over to Wells, leaving me all by myself at the crafts table, another kid showed up. Nate used to have crazy, curly hair all over the place, and I could barely see his face behind it all. He asked me why I was always alone, and I told him no one wanted to be friends with me. I remember his he made this scrunched up face, because he couldn't understand why. And so he told me he'd be my friend. Then he shouted to the other kids 'Anora is my friend now! You can't have her!' The teacher scolded him for it, threatening to make him leave class. I protested, telling her she would have to make both of us leave. So of course, she made both of us leave the room and wait in the hall until class was over. We've been best friends ever since."

"So when did you get together?"

"Together?" she asked, sitting up straight in surprise at the notion. She looked over at Bellamy, who was resting his elbows on his knees, staring straight ahead.

"We're not together. He's like a brother to me," she said, a bemused smile playing on her lips. Bellamy sat up as well, looking at her with confusion written across his face.

"You're sharing a tent, though."

"Yeah, we're sleeping together..." Anora felt her face flush, realizing what he meant. "No! We're not _sleeping together_ , we're sleeping! God, is that what people think?"

Bellamy chuckled. "If it makes you feel better, he's telling people who ask about it to mind their own business."

"Sure, that probably shuts them right up," she whispered, her voice laced with sarcasm. The two fell into a short silence, before Bellamy spoke up again.

"Maybe he's trying to protect you. If people think you're together, they might leave you alone."

"You think so?" she asked.

"I know a few things about brotherly protection," he said darkly. "He's probably been chasing boys away from you for years."

"Not all of them," she said absentmindedly, her mind picturing a pair of clear, blue eyes with short hair and a guards uniform.

* * *

Bellamy had moved himself back to his original place against the cave wall, where he fell asleep. Anora tried to do the same, but her hand was still aching in pain, and no sleep came to her.

"No!"

Charlotte's shriek was loud and piercing. Anora jumped in her seat, her hurt hand hitting a rock, and she hissed in pain. Bellamy woke immediately and moved towards Charlotte to wake her, placing a hand on her leg.

"Charlotte, wake up!"

"I'm sorry," was her immediate reaction to disturbing them. She was breathing heavily and her eyes were downcast.

"Don't be," said Anora softly, giving her a warm smile, but Charlotte didn't listen.

"Does it happen often?" asked Bellamy. Charlotte sat up a little, and sighed deeply.

"What are you scared of?"

Charlotte gave him no answer, afraid to look him in the eye.

"It's okay," said Anora. "You can tell us."

Charlotte still didn't answer, and Bellamy shook his head a little.

"You know what?" he said. "It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is what you do about it."

"But... I'm asleep?"

"Fears are fears. Slay your demons when you're awake, they won't be there to get you when you're asleep."

"Yeah, but... how?" asked Charlotte, intrigued by Bellamy's words.

"You can't afford to be weak. Down here, weakness is death. Fear is death."

Charlotte had brought up her eyes to meet Bellamy's, and was gazing intently at him.

"Let me see that knife I gave you."

Charlotte brought out the knife and gave it to him.

"Now, when you feel afraid, you hold tight to that knife and you say 'screw you, I'm not afraid'."

Bellamy turned the knife back towards Charlotte, and she gently grasped the handle again. She held it with both hands and closed her eyes.

"Screw you, I'm not afraid."

She opened her eyes at Bellamy, who gave her a pointed look. Tightening her grip on the knife, she closed her eyes again, but opened them as she spoke.

"Screw you," she said with more force. "I'm not afraid."

Bellamy smiled. "Slay your demons, kid. Then you'll be able to sleep."

He slid back into the spot by the wall, lying back down to go to sleep. Anora gave him a warm smile. He did know a thing or two about brotherly protection. She turned back to Charlotte who still looked scared.

"It's okay, Charlotte. You can go to sleep. Nothing is gonna happen to you while we're here, I promise."

Charlotte gave a little nod, and went back to sleep.

* * *

She must have dozed off, because before she knew it, Bellamy shook her shoulder and she jumped to. Rays of streaming sunlight were coming from the entrance of the cave, exposing the shimmering dust dancing in the air.

"The fog's cleared. Let's go."

Bellamy led Charlotte over to the entrance, and Anora followed them out into the wood. The grass around them was almost completely dry, and the sun was pretty high in the in the sky. It had to be almost midday already. The woods were eerie, completely silent, save for a few bird croaking in the distance.

"Anybody out here?" called Bellamy. "Jones?"

For a long second, there was no reply, until somewhere behind them came a call. "We're here!"

Hurrying towards the voice, they walked down the slope to find the others walking towards them. Bellamy let out a chuckle in relief, and Anora couldn't help but grin as she saw the smiley face of her best friend. Nathan jogged up to her, wrapping his arms around her in a short, but tight, squeeze. He let her go, messing up her hair a little, smirking as he did so. She gave him a playful shove, not being able to find it in herself to be annoyed with him.

"Lost you in the stew," said Bellamy. "Where'd you go?"

"Made it to a cave down there. What the hell was that?" replied Jones, looking over between Nathan and Bellamy.

"I don't know," said Bellamy. "Where's Atom?"

Jones shrugged, and the group fell silent.

"We thought he was with you guys," said Nathan, stepping closer to Bellamy.

"He should have been. He was right behind me," Anora whispered, wrapping her arms around herself, trying to will the negative thoughts away.

"We could split up. Start a search," suggested Nathan, looking to Bellamy to make the decision. Bellamy nodded.

"We'll go in groups of two and three. Spread out. We'll start by tracking back."

Anora felt Nathan pull her away from the others, grabbing her uninjured hand as they walked. She gave him a sad smile. When they were younger, they held hands everywhere they went. 'So we won't lose each other,' they had told their parents, who had only laughed. He rarely held her hand anymore, but when he did, she felt better.

They hadn't been searching long when they heard a high pitched scream through the woods. It's source wasn't far away, and Anora recognized it immediately.

"Charlotte," she whispered, dragging Nathan with her into a run in her direction. Charlotte kept screaming as they neared her. Quickly, Anora realized what had caused her screams.

Atom lay on the ground a few feet away from her. He was alive, gasping for breath, and giving low painful moans. Bellamy appeared next to Charlotte, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to comfort her. He couldn't keep the shock from his face, his jaw slack and his eyes wide.

Anora brought a hand up to her mouth, as she felt bile rise in her throat. All over Atom's skin were red welts, and yellow boils. His skin was completely covered, and looked much worse than her own burned hand. Nathan looked turned around, not able to look at him.

"Son of a bitch," said Bellamy. "Atom!"

He hurried over, sinking down to his knees next to his friend. Anora found herself walking slowly towards them. As she got closer, she saw Atom's eyes were like clear glass. She sat down on the opposite side of him, taking his hand in hers as gently as he could, her burnt flesh touching his. Atom looked over at her for a short second, before turning back to Bellamy.

"Kill me," he whispered, barely able to utter the necessary syllables. Bellamy stood up, in shock or in refusal to abide his wish, Anora didn't know.

"Shh," she cooed, leaning in closer. Atom turned his head slightly, once again looking at her. She couldn't tell if he could actually see her properly, yet she still forced herself to give him a comforting smile. "It's okay. We'll find a way to help you."

"I... can't... breathe..."

He coughed up a substance that looked like blood, and Anora used her sleeve to wipe his chin and lips, staining her sweater in the process.

"Don't be afraid," said Charlotte, bringing Anora's attention to her. Charlotte had walked up to Bellamy, and was looking expectantly at him. He squared his shoulders, looking over to where Nathan and the others were standing.

"Miller, take them back to camp."

Nathan nodded, a flash of relief crossing his face, as he and the other three walked away.

"Charlotte, you too."

Bellamy sat back down as Charlotte followed the others through the woods. Anora noticed the knife in his hand.

"Bellamy," she pleaded. There had to be something they could do to save him. If they could get him to Clarke, perhaps, or the river. They could ease the pain somehow. But Bellamy just shook his head.

"Kill me," said Atom once again. He turned his head, exposing his neck, yet Bellamy hesitated. His hand was unsteady, and his breathing almost as heavy as Atom's.

"Bellamy, please..."

Anora found she couldn't watch, bile once again rising in her throat. She let go of Atom's hand and got to her feet, looking up and seeing Clarke watching them from between the trees. She hurried over to them, taking a seat next to Atom, where Anora had been sitting before.

"I heard screams," she said as she studied Atom's burns.

"Charlotte found him. I sent her back to camp."

"Can you help him?" Anora whispered pleadingly at Clarke. Clarke gave him a once over, but shook her head shortly at Bellamy. Feeling tears press behind her eyes, Anora turned away, not able to watch what they were about to do. She shut her eyes tight, but could not shut out Clarke's voice.

"Okay," she said softly. "I'm gonna help you, all right?"

She started humming a tune, and it was all Anora heard other than the sound of Atom's coughs and breathing. And then, after a short moment, Atom fell silent, and Clarke kept humming.

* * *

 **:( bye bye atom**

 **Thanks so much for the reviews, and the favs and follows! You guys are really sweet! I've had a few PM's asking me what the plan for the story is, and I know at least one review, so I thought I'd clarify a little.**

 **I'm sticking to canon as best as I can. That being said, obviously this story, though written in 3rd person, is told from Anora's point of view. She's not always going to be present for the action on the show. I'm trying my best to show _her_ experiences on the ground, rather than Clarke's or Bellamy's experiences. Anora isn't a fighter, so she won't be doing much running around the woods with a gun, which frankly, is a big part of the show. So there will be more original content as we go along. I've started writing the next chapter, and I've got about 3000 words down and I haven't even started on the action in the next episode. After all, there are days between the Earth Kills and Murphy's Law. Loads of stuff happened during that time :)**


	9. Chapter 9: Loss

**Disclaimer: I do not own the 100 or any of its characters. I have not read the books, so this story is based on the show.**

* * *

 _She was on the ground. The Ark, she had to get to the Ark. Picking up her pace, she walked through the maze of pines. To her left she saw a flash of bright light, accompanied by a soft smile. A soothing hum, one she had heard before, a long time ago. And then, a chuckle, also soft darker, coming from the other side. She turned, seeing metal walls closing in on her. She felt a soft caress over her hair, looked up to meet dark eyes like her own. A strained smile, but a smile nonetheless. Had she made it?_

 _The humming grew closer. She turned around. A figure enveloped in light, hair so light it was almost white, and icy blue eyes. The warm smile felt strange, out of place, enveloped in shiny metal walls. She turned back around to the familiar figure. It was dark, weighing her down, but comfortable, growing around her._

" _Anora."_

 _She looked up into the dark eyes, feeling his hand grip around her arm. What did he want?_

* * *

"Anora!"

It was a harsh whisper. She startled, opening her eyes, meeting a pair of dark browns.

 _Dad?_

It wasn't. She felt a rush of relief run through her, and then a pang of guilt.

Bellamy was crouched down between her and Nathan's beds. He was turned to her, leaning in close, his hand gripped firmly around her upper arm from shaking her awake. His brow was furrowed, hair even messier than the day before, and he was once again wearing his trusty stone cold expression.

"What is it?" she asked, sleep still laced in her voice.

"You need to get up," he said, his voice so dark it grated on her soul. "It's bad."

He got to his feet, picked up one of Nathan's shoes and threw it at the sleeping figure. Nathan jerked into a sitting position, wrapping his hands around the shoe . He tensed, as if ready to throw it back at Bellamy, before recognizing who was in their tent.

"What the hell, man?"

"My tent, now. Both of you."

Anora pulled her boots on before Nathan had time to properly wake up. She laced her boots as best as she could, with sleep still weighing on her movements.

"Hurry," she told her friend. "I think something bad happened."

Nathan put his shoes on, rubbed his eyes to wake up, but still looked like death when they walked out of the tent.

The camp was quiet. The sun hadn't properly risen, and it didn't seem like any of the other kids were up yet. Even Drew, who was supposed to keep the fire going all night, was sleeping on a small patch of grass near the almost dead embers. He was entirely covered in dew. They approached the tent, hearing low murmurs from the inside. Nathan shot her a look, before she lifted the canvas at the entrance and went inside.

She was surprised when she only saw four people inside. It made sense that Murphy was there, even Jones. They were among Bellamy's henchmen, an elite group she was starting to worry included Nathan. But what was Finn doing there?

And that's when she realized. The body on the table made of dropship metal. Dark skin, light brown shirt, covered in blood.

"Wells."

She let out a breath, not able to draw another one, until she felt Nathan appear beside her, his hand on her shoulder. It was the only thing she felt. The cold air, the smell, it all faded away. All she could focus on was the hand on her shoulder, and the wound on Wells' neck.

"What happened?" asked Nathan. She could feel him beside her, tense, rigid, barely choking out the words.

"He was on watch, Jones found him when he came to relieve him," said Bellamy, his voice as dark as before.

"Grounders must have got him," said Finn. "Poor bastard."

Anora felt herself ease up, and drew the breath she had been waiting for. She looked at Finn, who was staring at her.

"Does Clarke know?" she asked, looking at Bellamy, who had the decency to look ashamed. Even Murphy did. "Someone has to tell her."

"We were hoping you would," said Finn, rubbing his neck, looking down at his shoes.

"What?" she retorted. "Clarke doesn't even like me. You should do it."

Finn took a step back, and his face flushed a little. "I'm not..." he started, but paused, and swallowed hard. "I'm not good with..."

"Words?" Finn looked up and met Anora's unimpressed glare.

"Listen, you knew her on the Ark. You say she doesn't like you, fine, maybe not. But I know she trusts you. She knows what kind of person you are. And you knew Wells. You know what they were like before."

"Anora," said Bellamy after Finn was done with his excuses, giving her a pleading look. "Like you said, someone has to tell her."

"Well, I don't see you volunteering either," she said, and crossed her arms, glaring at him as well. "Fine, I'll do it. But someone has to bury him, like he did for the others."

"I'll do it," said Nathan. "I owe him that much."

Murphy snorted. "Yeah, what for, Miller? What did he ever do for you?"

"How about the he did all the work on our science project and didn't rat me out?" Nathan hissed, stepping closer to Murphy with every word. "Or the time he was running around these woods on a sprained ankle, trying to help everybody out? Or the time he was killed by a grounder while on watch, making sure we were safe?"

Nathan would have gotten right in Murphy's face, if Bellamy hadn't stepped between them.

"That's enough, Miller." He put a hand on Nathan's shoulder, using determined force to push him back. "Jones will help you. No one leaves camp alone anymore, got it?"

He turned to the rest of them, all of them nodded in agreement except for Finn. Jones started wrapping Wells' body in some parachute, but had to nudge Nathan to get him to help carry the body out of the tent. Together, they hauled the body between them out the entrance.

Anora turned her back to them as they did so, focusing on a tear in the canvas. She didn't turn around until she heard the flap close, and Bellamy clear his throat.

"It's time for some changes. We can't allow this to happen to anyone else," he said, looking from Murphy, to Finn, to Anora. "We'll build a wall around camp."

"To keep the Grounders out?" asked Finn, "Or us in?"

Murphy, still reeling with anger from the earlier confrontation, turned towards Finn. "Got a problem, Spacewalker?"

"Cut it out, Murphy," said Bellamy. It wasn't a request, and Murphy slunk back into the corner. Bellamy rested his palms against the table in the middle of the tent. "If we're gonna keep them safe, I need everybody on board."

Finn scowled. "What do you need from me?"

"You're the best tracker we've got, and I've got a group of hunters in need of training."

"Fine. Anything else?"

"You already know the area better than anyone else. Scout it, map it, and report back anything interesting. Signs of grounders, or food, water. Can you do that?"

"What happened to 'no one leaves camp alone?'" Finn asked with a smirk.

Bellamy let out an amused chuckle. "I don't feel like pretending that I can keep you from breaking that rule. Are you in?"

Finn nodded. There was a hardness to him that Anora hadn't seen before. She wondered what Clarke would say if she found out Finn had teamed up with Bellamy. Then again, Clarke was bound to have other things on her mind, she might not even notice.

"Murphy, I need you to gather up a group to go out and get wood, and any other materials we'll need for the wall. You'll go with them, help them out, make sure they're safe. Find kids from Factory Station or Mecha. We're gonna need kids who have actually built something before."

Murphy nodded, and Bellamy turned to Anora. He looked at her like he wasn't sure what to do with her. The fire he'd had in his eyes while talking to Finn and Murphy was gone, replaced by something else. Like he didn't want her involved, or... She couldn't tell.

"You're the closest thing to a cook we have," he said. "You up for the job?"

She nodded, and Bellamy's tense stance relaxed a little.

"We need more than just hunters to keep us alive, though. We need foragers, and someone to keep up the water supply," she said.

"We've got two guys from Hydra station in camp," said Finn. "I'm sure they can find easier ways to collect rainwater, maybe even get a filter of some sort going."

"Good," said Bellamy. "Talk to them, see if they can help." Finn nodded in confirmation. He threw an apologetic glance at Anora, before rushing out of the tent. She stared at the flap where he left.

"How many do you need for foraging?"

Anora jumped to, realizing Bellamy was talking to her again. "Not including myself, only two or three. I'm sure Roma would do it if I asked."

"You will also need to bring someone with you to keep watch," said Bellamy, giving her a pointed look. "Someone with a weapon."

"I'll do it," said Murphy from the corner, but Bellamy quickly shook his head at the offer.

"You'll be busy with the wall," he said. Murphy frowned, but said nothing. "Honestly, it doesn't matter who it is. Miller, Jones, any of the hunters. Let me know when you head out, and I'll find someone for you."

Anora nodded. "Are we done here? I should talk to Clarke before everyone wakes up."

Bellamy gave a sharp jerk with his head in reply. "I'll let you know if there's anything else," he said, raising his hand to dismiss her. She left the tent with a scowl on her face.

* * *

How did people deliver news of death? She felt like she needed to do something. Bake a cake, or bring flowers. But it seemed so silly.

"Hello, Clarke. I'm sorry to say your best friend was killed, but please, smell these roses so I feel better about myself."

Anora sat outside Clarke's tent for what felt like ages, but was probably only ten minutes. She would have to wake her soon, if she wanted to deliver the news before the rest of the camp got up. It seemed better to do it while people didn't know. Clarke deserved to know before everyone else, too, if only so she could prepare herself. She should have been the first to know. Bellamy should have told her immediately, or Finn, or even Jones. Why did it have to be her?

Whatever Finn said, it wasn't true. She would never understand Clarke. Where Finn just saw two girls from Alpha, she saw every argument, every opposition between them. Clarke was the aspiring doctor who would one day take over as Chief Medical Officer after her mother. She had always been better than Anora, more clever. A little uptight, perhaps, but everyone knew she had a good heart. Her future wasn't supposed to be running around on the ground, struggling to survive. She was supposed to have married Wells, and eventually become Chancellor.

Her own future on the Ark was much different. She would have stayed on Agro and worked in the kitchens. A solid, respectable job, but easily forgotten. Maybe she would have married some boy from Agro. It didn't really matter, because that future was gone. Even if they did manage to get the people on the Ark to the ground, everything was different now. But Clarke would still be the same; the born leader who would fight tooth and nail for what she though was right.

On the ground, Anora couldn't tell what was right anymore. It scared her.

Behind her, Drew stirred near the burnt-out fire. He groaned a little. Anora turned to see him stretch his arms above his head, and then bring them back in to his chest. She looked up to the sky. The soft, wispy clouds had a pink tint to them when she and Nathan woke up, but now they looked pure and white. The sun was caressing the tops of the trees near the camp. Everyone would be up soon.

She walked up to Clarke's tent. Most of the kids shared tents, or slept on the second level of the dropship. Clarke didn't share with anyone. Her tent was tiny, the smallest in the camp. Anora had overheard Wells tell her she was welcome to sleep in the dropship with him and the others, but Clarke had refused. Instead, she had opted to make a tent out of the tiniest piece of parachute.

She lifted the flap to see Clarke curled up into a ball, not having enough space to stretch out her legs properly. Her head was placed carefully on a flat, mossy rock, blonde strands of hair in her face. She'd made a makeshift bed out of moss, leaves, and grass. Anora crept inside, put a hand on her shoulder, and shook it gently.

"Clarke," she said in a low, firm voice. Under her hand, Clarke stirred, so she pulled her arm back. Clarke rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, and looked at Anora. She blinked a couple of times, before a look of realization dawned on her.

"What time is it?" she asked, her voice laced with sleep.

"Just past dawn. The camp is still asleep."

"Oh," said Clarke. She sat up, running a hand through her hair, trying to fix the mess the moss had made of it. "Why are you here, then?"

Anora took a deep breath. "Something's happened. It's bad."

"How bad?" Clarke asked. Anora couldn't bare to meet her gaze. "Really bad."

They sat in silence for several seconds, tension building between them. Clarke stared at her, waiting for her to speak. Anora could feel her blue eyes on her.

"It's Wells," she finally said. She could hear Clarke draw in a hasty breath, but she couldn't look at her, not yet. "They found him outside camp. He was supposed to keep watch. They think Grounders got him."

"Is he all right?" Clarke said, her voice surprisingly level.

"No, he's not."

* * *

They sat together for hours, mostly in silence. Clarke didn't cry, not once. A while after Anora sat down, Clarke huddled close to her. She tucked her arm inside Anora's elbow, and rested her head on her shoulder. Anora could hear her soft breathing. They had never sat this close, Anora thought. She'd known Clarke for years, yet never been her friend. Perhaps she could be her friend now, now that she needed one.

Outside Clarke's tent, they could hear the bustling of the camp. Sometimes they heard Bellamy's voice, shouting out orders for some of the kids. As time passed, the sound of the camp scurrying grew louder. How many of them knew that everything had changed? All of them? None?

"I should check on Jasper," said Clarke. She didn't move an inch, but her breath hitched a little. "He's much better. We were talking about trying to get him on his feet today. He'll be waiting for me."

"He won't mind if you wait until tomorrow."

They sat in silence a little while longer, until Clarke broke it again.

"Are you not going to ask?"

"Ask what?"

"Why I hated him."

"You didn't hate him. I don't need to know what happened between you to know that. He was still your best friend," said Anora. Clarke sat up, removed her arm from around Anora's, and shook her head softly.

"No. I hated him. I despised him. I told him to walk into the fog, and I meant it. I hated him for something he didn't do."

"Clarke..." Anora said, trying to comfort her, but anything she could say would come short.

"I thought he turned my dad in," Clarke whispered. "He was the only one I told. And he let me think it was him to protect me, but it wasn't. It was my mom."

Clarke sat still next to her, not moving a muscle, staring intently at the canvas of her tent. Anora had sat quietly next to her, not knowing what to say. After a while, she put both arms around Clarke, rested her head on her shoulder, imitating Clarke earlier. Slowly, Clarke brought her hand up and squeezed Anora's arm. Together they sat in Clarke's tiny tent, the canvas brushing against the tops of their heads, listening to Murphy bark out orders at people in the camp.

* * *

"Ouch!"

"Oh, sorry!" said Anora, letting go of the fistful of Roma's hair.

"You're horrible at this, you know that?"

"I'm well aware, thank you."

Running her fingers through Roma's auburn locks again, she started over. Parting a section of her hair in three, Anora tried her best at the attempt of a French braid. It was her first time ever doing it, and while she felt quite proud of herself, she had to admit, her braiding skills were abysmal.

"This is what you get for only being friends with boys." Roma told her, and laughed so her body shook, making Anora's job harder. Despite her playful teasing, Roma had been very patient with her. She had started over four or five times, and only one of those times did Roma's hair look halfway decent.

"Try holding each section between your fingers."

"They keep getting loose!"

"It's okay," Roma assured her. "It doesn't have to be pretty. I just want it out of my face."

While they had been talking, Anora's fingers had been moving on their own. Realizing this, she let out a little squeal of excitement. Roma laughed once more, as Anora asked for the hair tie, a piece of thread from Anora's green sweater. Tying the braid together, she stepped back and viewed her masterpiece.

It was an atrocious braid, but it did as Roma asked, and held her hair out of her face. It would do.

"Now let's do your hair!"

That had been the deal after all, braiding each other's hair. Their hair was almost the same length, though Anora's was darker, almost black. Roma preferred her own hair flowing over her shoulders, but found it was an impractical look in their current surroundings.

They switched places, Anora taking Roma's place on the log, Roma standing upright behind her.

"So, how do you want it?"

"I just want it out of the way."

Roma started by brushing her hair as best she could. She had spent most of her time on the ground carving a branch into a comb, and had finally finished it that morning. It was a little rough around the edges, only having a makeshift knife to work with. But it was the best they had. When Roma showed it to her, she had been so proud, with her wide smile and her enthusiastic speech about proper hygiene. Anora was easily sold on the comb, promising to help her fix her hair in no time, despite her lack of experience.

The comb hit the ground with a thud, and Roma buried her fingers into Anora's hair. She hummed a little tune as she worked, one Anora hadn't heard before. For a few seconds, she let herself relax. She closed her eyes, listening to Roma's humming, feeling her fingers in her hair. When she opened them, her eyes caught a messy, blonde head.

She dragged her feet as she walked, staring intently at the ground as she exited the dropship. Her brow was furrowed, and her jaw clenched. There was a certain kind of stiffness to her walk, as if she was forcing herself. She slipped out of camp as no one else was looking.

"There," said Roma suddenly, tearing Anora away from Clarke. She ran a hand over her hair, feeling the braid that went from her forehead, downwards above her right ear, to her left shoulder. "Next time I'll show you how to do it on yourself."

Anora gave her a warm smile. "Thanks, Roma."

"I just wish we had a mirror or something. You're absolutely hopeless. I bet I look awful."

"Hey!" Anora gave her a little shove, but it didn't wipe off the smirk on Roma's face. "Not even I could make you look awful."

"Ain't that the truth," Roma replied, winking at her, and making her giggle. Roma packed up her things, and stashed them in the tent. Anora grabbed her jacket and Wells' pack and threw them on.

"How about you go find Fox, and see if she wants to come? I'll find Bellamy and tell him we're heading out."

Roma nodded, heading towards the dropship to find her friend. Anora turned in the other direction, where a group of kids had started setting up the wall. Bellamy was showing one of the younger boys, a boy of maybe 14, how to wrap wire around two pieces of wood. Once she neared them, he looked up, handed the wire to the boy and told him to try for himself. He got on his feet and approached her. He let his eyes fall at her braid with raised brows.

"Nice," he said, nodding. "Practical."

Anora almost burst out laughing. "You sure know how to make a girl feel special, Blake." Her eyes twinkled at her own joke, but Bellamy's darkened. Her smile fell from her face.

"Blake, huh?" he said darkly. "If that's how it's gonna be. What do you want, _Kane_?"

He might as well have slapped her across the face, she thought. She knew Bellamy wouldn't forget who her father was, but she had hoped he had decided not to care. Perhaps she had been delusional, but it seemed like most people in camp didn't mind anymore. Even Murphy was civil towards her, and only hours before they had been on the same team. Even better, they had been on the same page.

"I... uh..."

The words would not leave her mouth. _Roma, Fox and I are leaving camp to gather food. You said we needed a bodyguard._ She could only imagine what he thought of her. Her jaw was slack and her eyes wide. He crossed his arms across his chest, and raised his eyebrows. She realized he was expecting an answer, and she had to say something.

"What did I do now?" she blurted out, before she could stop herself. She mentally cursed herself for not thinking her words through. To her surprise, she found the situation turning in her favor. Bellamy looked taken aback at her words. He rubbed his neck, and shook his head.

"Nothing," he said quietly, not looking her in the eyes, moving his gaze to inspect the kids working on the wall. "How's your hand?"

Anora blinked in surprise. She'd forgotten about her hand herself, and was impressed that he'd remembered.

"It's fine," she said simply, and she wasn't lying. She had soaked her hand in water after they returned to camp the day before. It had stopped throbbing, and only hurt if she poked it.

There was a pregnant pause between them, neither knowing what to say, until he broke the silence.

"So, did you need something?"

"Right, uh, I'm taking Roma and Fox with me out to gather some food, maybe some medicinal herbs if we can find any."

Bellamy nodded slowly. "Drew's been sleeping since this morning, so he's free, you can take him with you."

"Oh, okay," Anora replied. She turned around to leave, eager to get away from him, but he grabbed her shoulder and held her back.

"Take Octavia with you," he said, any sign of animosity towards her stripped from his face. "Please."

Anora stared up at him, wondering how she had grown so accustomed to gazing into his dark eyes.

"If she wants to," she managed to get out. "I'll talk to her."

"Convince her," he said. He had an edge of desperation to his voice, and the grip on her shoulder tightened a little.

"I'll talk to her," she repeated firmly, grabbing his hand from her shoulder pulling it away. Bellamy let out a sigh, but nodded, not willing to start another battle with her.

"Thank you, Anora," he said. She gave him a short smile, and nodded. The way he said her name made it sound more like an apology than a thank you.

She realized she was still holding his hand, so she let him go and walked away.

* * *

 _This chapter was meant to be longer, with the girls and Drew parading the woods searching for food, but it just felt right to end it here. Next chapter will likely be shorter._

 _So it's time for a new year everybody! I hope you're all ready for season 3, as it's only weeks away. I'm not gonna lie, I'm NOT ready. It looks to be another heartbreaking season, I'm not sure I can handle that._

 _But on to something else! Thank you so much for your reviews, follows and faves. Honestly, it really means a lot to me, and you're all so sweet._

 _I'd like to address just one thing though. I got a review on the last chapter saying I should have made Anora kill Atom because it was boring to read about the same things happening again and again (I'm paraphrasing here). That's fine, if some people think so, I can't force them to think differently. However, I didn't make an OC to take Clarke's place. First of all, that would mean ruining Clarke as a character, and I happen to like her. And secondly, it's just not in Anora's nature to kill Atom. And honestly, it just feels like lazy storytelling. I'm trying to challenge myself to not take shortcuts with this story. I'm trying to tell Anora's story, not Clarke's story with a different hair color. It will be a while yet before Anora starts shaking things up. I, however, see a lot of small, defining moments in this chapter, and no one had to get hurt to do it :) (except Wells, but he was already dead so...)_


	10. Chapter 10: Maybe

**Disclaimer: I do not own the 100 or any of its characters. I have not read the books, so this story is based on the show.**

 **Note: This chapter contains a somewhat graphic description of dressing an animal. If this makes you uncomfortable, the last and third section of this chapter might not be for you.**

* * *

"You know, some day I'm gonna have better things to do than follow my brother's orders. What are you gonna do then, huh?" Octavia paused, grabbing another branch and pulling herself higher. "Without your personal trained monkey?"

"Oh, I don't know," said Anora, catching the acorns Octavia dropped by holding her pack open. "I didn't see it as an order, exactly. It was more like a... _firm_ suggestion? Besides, are you already tired? We're only on day three of monkey training."

She felt a sharp pain on top of her head, making her yelp. On the other side of the small meadow, where Fox and Roma were gathering mushrooms by the large roots of the oak trees, Mbege turned to them and called over, "everything okay over there?"

"We're fine! Go back to flirting with Roma!" Octavia replied, smirking down at her new friend, who has gently rubbing the top of her head.

"Speak for yourself," she grumbled in reply, looking up at her again, and saw her lazy smirk.

"Sorry, next time I'll try not to be so _firm_ in my drop."

Anora chuckled, and caught another acorn Octavia plucked from the branches in her pack. Or rather, Wells' pack, but she supposed he wouldn't need it anymore. She imagined he would have liked that they put his things to good use.

She looked up at Octavia, shifting slightly to catch another falling. Octavia was all right, she thought, different from her brother, and if she was honest, from herself, too. Octavia was wilder, more carefree. She didn't care about repercussions or consequences, yet she still had a strong sense of right and wrong. After years of being hidden away, she had been surprisingly quick to make friends with the other delinquents. Octavia was one tough cookie, and Anora found herself wishing some of her strength would rub off on her.

"Since when are you team Bellamy, anyway?" Octavia remarked casually, swinging her leg over a different branch and pulling herself up by another, so she sat looking right down at Anora. Her feet dangled ten feet above ground, and Anora found herself glad she wasn't the one playing squirrel.

"I thought you didn't agree with him. What happened to, 'we can't survive on our own! Boo hoo - the people on the Ark will die!'" she said, no longer picking acorns from the greenery. "I thought you and Clarke would team up against him. Team Girl Power against the Wannabe Guard Squad. You would totally win."

Anora raised a brow, a small smile played on her lips as she watched Octavia. "Really?"

"Yeah," said Octavia. She let herself fall from the branch, catching herself with her hands before dropping to the ground, and released her grip. With a hard thud, she landed on the yellow grass-covered soil on both feet. She stood up straight and looked right into Anora's impressed gaze.

"Clarke's the doctor, so we need her. You're the cook, so we need you. Bellamy's just a guard reject, and the people closest to him? They're all a bunch of idiots. And Finn would be on Clarke's side. You could totally convince everybody to make you or Clarke in charge."

"And why are you trying to convince me to go against your brother?" Anora asked simply. Octavia's eyes darkened for a second, but she looked away, across the meadow and over at the others. Anora waited in silence. Octavia watched them for a little while, before turning back.

"Maybe I want to hurt him," she said. "Maybe I just want to see how loyal you are. Maybe I just think Clarke would be a better leader. So what's it gonna be?"

Octavia narrowed her eyes, waiting for Anora's answer.

"You're wrong," she said, watching Octavia's brows inch slowly upwards. "Bellamy is the only leader they will accept right now. H might not always be right, but he is our best option for stability. If he was still pushing 'whatever the hell we want', I wouldn't dream of helping him. But he others listen to him. They look up to him. We're building something here, something that could actually last. We would be stupid to throw that away."

Octavia gave her a small smile.

"You're alright, Kane," she said, patted Anora's back and pulled her pack over her shoulder. She chuckled a little, looking back at Anora and said, "I _never_ thought I'd say that."

From the other side of the meadow, Fox, Roma and Mbege neared them. Anora looked to the sky, but the sun was hidden behind the trees.

"Time to leave, guys," said Mbege, giving Fox and Roma.

"There's some onions left by the pines over there," said Fox, pointing behind her right. "We should get them before we leave."

"The sun's going down," said Anora, looking over at the patch of wild onions. "We'll get them tomorrow or something."

* * *

The sun had started to set by the time they got back. The sky above the camp was surrounded by pink and orange swirly clouds, creating little pieces of art wherever they looked. All the trees around camp were painted in yellows and oranges. The dropship metal reflected the light, so the camp was bathing in a warm, gentle glow. It looked like something out of a story.

"Sunsets from the ground sure are different than the ones on the Ark," Mbege remarked, having said little during the walk back to camp.

"I wouldn't know," said Octavia, before brushing past him. She dumped her pack near the little cooking area by the fire. The pack dropped to the ground with a thud, and fell over so that some of the content spilled over the ground. Octavia didn't stop to rectify her mistake, with force she kept going, pushing past two younger kids, and hurrying into the dropship.

"Touchy," said Roma, sending Anora a wide smirk. She walked over to Octavia's pack and started to pick up the spilled acorns and place them back into the pack. Fox and Anora joined her, leaving Mbege to fend for himself. They fetched the food containers and sorted the acorns and the mushrooms into separate ones. She had only just closed the containers when she felt something soft, but heavy, hit her head and fall into her lap. Immediately, she wrapped her arms around whatever it was, as a reflex, and got to her feet and turned around.

She was met by Nathan holding out a hare right in front of her face. Confused, she felt the thing in her hand, feeling the soft fur. She shuddered.

"Happy birthday," said Nathan, a wide grin on his face. Behind him stood Bellamy, looking confused, his own hand wrapped around the ears of another hare. "It's a bunny," said Nathan, wriggling the one in his hand. His smile tightened, as if to keep from laughing.

"It's dead," she said. "You got me a dead hare for my birthday."

Nathan smiled and nodded with great enthusiasm. Anora snatched the fluffy animal from him.

"You have officially been demoted," she said, shaking her hand at him, and thus, shaking the hare. "Roma, congratulations, you're now my best friend."

"Score," said Roma unenthusiastically behind her. Nathan gave the girls a ridiculous pout, and Anora couldn't help but chuckle a little, but pulled herself together and sent him a steely glare.

"If you want rabbit stew for supper you better get out of my sight, Miller," she said, her eyes narrowed. Nathan threw his hands up in surrender, turned on his heel walking away, laughing as he did so.

"I'm not sticking around for this mess," Roma mumbled, got to her feet, following Nathan. As she passed Bellamy, she threw him one of her charming smiles, getting a confused smile in return. "You two play nice," said Roma, and then she was off before the two could reply.

Turning her eyes at Bellamy, Anora saw the knuckles on the hand wrapped around the soft ears of the hare he was holding were turning white. He wasn't looking at her, anywhere but in fact.

"You can just leave it there," she said, breaking the silence between them. She nodded her head at the patch of ground next to the packs of acorn. They hadn't spoken much the last few days, and she preferred it that way. She wanted them to get along for the sake of the group, but Bellamy had a way of always making their conversations more heated than need be. He was too intense, too defensive, she thought, always on the edge. Sometimes he reminded her of a wounded animals, lashing out in fear rather than anger. And she was the enemy, or at least, had they still been on the Ark she would have been the enemy. One of the privileged. Letting go of years of animosity between the stations was easier said than done, even if they were both in the same boat now.

Sometimes she wondered what would have happened if they weren't so dependent on each other. If Bellamy hadn't needed her and Clarke and Nathan, would he have sent them away? Banished them from camp? With Wells gone, they were the only three left from Alpha station. But he did need them, especially Clarke. No matter what he thought of them, no matter how privileged he thought they were, their skills and knowledge made them essential to the camp. And Bellamy knew that better than anyone.

He didn't answer, just kept hold of the hare in his grip, and stared into the fire. Anora put her own hares on the ground, sinking to her knees next to the fire. As Bellamy was clearly not going to move, she got back up and walked over to him. He snapped to and looked at her, as she pulled the hare in his hand from him. He pulled it back.

"Did you get a little too attached to that thing?" she joked. "Don't tell me you've decided to go vegetarian on us?"

Bellamy looked at her with wide eyes, and a look of confusion, before he looked down at his hand.

"Oh," he said. He cleared his throat, looked back up at Anora, meeting her eyes for a second. His gaze fell slightly to see her teasing grin. "No, I was just- uh..."

His free hand came up to his neck, and as he rubbed it, he stared out over camp. A few of the kids around had stopped what they were doing to watch their leader fumble with his words, even if they couldn't hear what he was saying.

"You what?" Anora asked, and he was forced to bring his eyes to her face again. Her smirk was gone, and her face had fallen into expectation.

"I was hoping you could teach me," he finally said. Anora just blinked at him for a few seconds, before letting out a snort and then a chuckle. Bellamy felt his lungs shrink in size as he let out a long breath. The hare fell from his hand to the grassy ground with a soft thud.

"I just- You don't have to. I'll leave you to it."

Just as he turned around he felt her hand on his arm, like fire, as she pulled him back around.

"That's not what I meant!" she said, and as he stared down at her, he noticed her cheeks were reddening.

"I'm sorry," she said. "That was just bad manners. It's just, I can't really _teach_ you anything."

"What?"

Anora looked up at him, her big brown eyes, meeting his. Eyes like the ones he'd only read about in books, like a doe's. Eyes that weren't supposed to exist in mortals. They looked guilty. He had to remind himself where they came from.

"You do realize that I'm just making this up as I go, right?" she finally said, taking him aback. "I haven't dressed a hare more than you have."

"You seemed to do fine with a jaguar?"

Anora snorted again, but brought her hand up to her mouth, sending him a sheepish look.

"I once read a book about how to dress a stag. The jaguar one part common sense, one part of adapting whatever I could remember from that book to a big cat. And a dash of luck. This whole dressing animals thing is me just... learning by doing, I guess."

Bellamy gaped at her. "You mean anyone could do what you do?"

She scoffed. "Not _anyone_. You're smart enough to figure it out. Clarke, too. Wells is probably even better at it than all of us, he was always better at-" her voice suddenly died as realization set in. Her lips shut tight, pressed into a thin line. Then lowered her head and glared at the ground. A little sniff, and then she rubbed her nose.

"I'm sorry. I know you were friends," he said, not knowing what else to say.

Anora sniffed again, and brought her head up. "Not really. We sat next to each other in Earth Skills."

"Still, he was..." but Bellamy didn't know what Wells was. To him, he was only the Chancellor's son. A source of aggravation.

"He was one of us," Anora said, and Bellamy found himself nodding. Her face was grim, those eyes of hers that were so soft and big, were now hard as steel. "They can't have any more of us."

"We won't let them," he assured her, bringing his hand up to her shoulder. He brushed her messy braid away with a finger, then gave her what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze. It brought one of the tiniest smiles to her face.

She sniffed again, brushed a tear away from her face and took a deep breath. Her eyes met his, this time her smile wider, though not quite like the smiles he'd gotten used to. She gestured to the hares on the ground.

"So, what do you say we pop one of these babies open and see what happens, huh?"

He couldn't help put smile, as he picked up the hare he'd dropped and they settled near the fire.

* * *

Dressing animals was a bloody affair, and Anora was pretty sick of it. She did what she could to not get their blood on the clothes, but that was virtually impossible. Bellamy was a great help. Separating the skin from the flesh of the hares required more strength than she had, especially around their paws and legs. Not to mention, his knife was sharper than the borrowed one she used.

Or rather, it wasn't borrowed anymore. He told her to keep it, as a birthday gift.

"Best birthday ever," she said, sarcasm lacing her voice. Bellamy chuckled. "And to think, last year I only got new boots and a sweater. This year, I got entrails and blood and a knife." To emphasize her point, she grabbed the last of the entrails and threw them in the fire, watching it blaze up and settling down again. It didn't smell particularly nice. Some of the kids had even complained about it, until they realized they would be eating something other than nuts and onions.

"You'd think I was some kind of serial killer," she finished her tirade, throwing the last hare at Bellamy for him to skin. He chuckled at her little rant, which she noticed he'd been doing quite a bit for the hour they had been working together. She was glad he was in a better mood than usual. Most likely he would be back to his old, not-so-charming self soon enough. Even if they did get a long quite well when they weren't fighting. Very well, in fact. It almost frightened her.

Anora started peeling onions, dropping them into the pan in which they would cook the hares. The pan was just a container from the drop ship, made of thick steel. The meat from the first two hares was already sizzling in the tiny layer of water. Once the final hare was ready to be chopped up, she would add more water, bring it to a boil for about an hour, maybe more, depending on how hungry the kids got. It would be a late supper, but they would all have to deal with it.

"So how old are you today?" he suddenly asked, not looking up from the hare. Anora dropped another onion in the pan, before answering.

"18," she said simply. She grabbed another onion, held it, stared at it. Every little crack in the skin was examined.

"I was supposed to be floated today," she continued. "Funny how that works."

Bellamy stopped what he was doing, the hare fell limp in his lap, its skin halfway off. "You think your father would have let you die?"

She nodded absentmindedly. "I think my father has done a lot of things I didn't believe him capable of before. Now I don't know anymore."

A few seconds passed, before the sound of Bellamy's knife against the flesh of the hair filled the silence.

"I think you're wrong," he said, his voice gruff as if he was angry.

"Maybe I am," she replied, and started peeling her onion again. "Maybe my father loved me enough to convince Jaha to give me a break. Maybe I would have been lucky."

She paused for a second, looking over at Bellamy. "But we'll never know, will we?" she said, a sad smile playing on her lips. "Because my father sent me down here to die, instead."

They sat in silence for several minutes, listening to the camp bustling around them. Her, peeling onions, and him, working on the hare. After a while, he handed her a skinned hare and his knife for her to chop up and throw in the pan. Bellamy got to his feet and collected the hare skins.

"You should take them, give one to Octavia or something," Anora said, handing him his knife back, throwing the meat into the pan. "And remember to wash your hands thoroughly, even after the blood is gone." Bellamy nodded. Just as he was about to leave, he turned around and looked at her, stirring the squared pot gently while waiting for it to boil.

"Maybe he didn't send you down here to die. Maybe your father sent you down here to live," he said suddenly, and Anora turned slack-jawed to him.

"You better watch it, Bellamy, or I'll tell the camp you said something nice about the bogeyman."

He chuckled again as he walked away, leaving Anora behind to keep an eye on the pot, thinking about how he wasn't such bad company after all.

* * *

 **Seriously guys, after writing this my browser history consists of searches like "do rabbits have paws or feet" and "how to dispose of animal entrails". Yikes.**

 **Sorry for the late update, everyone! I'm afraid I've had a bit of an eventful year so far, and not in a good way. But things are looking up now, and I finally found some time to finish this chapter. Finals are coming up, so after that I'll have plenty of time to write, I hope. As always, thanks for the reviews, the faves and follows. You guys are really so sweet!**

 **This chapter is mainly to give you an insight in what Anora's role in the camp is, what Bellamy thinks of her, and what Anora thinks Bellamy thinks about her. It's a pretty good step in their relationship, in my opinion. I hope people are excited about that!**

 **Also, season 3, you guys! I'm not sure what to think about it, for several reasons. I have a lot of evil plans, but they change pretty often. For now, I've only planned season 1 in detail, but I have made up my mind about most of season 2. So those two are my focus, at least until the new season ends.**


End file.
